


A kiss never forgotten

by narutoandsasukearecanon



Category: Naruto
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-20
Updated: 2018-01-07
Packaged: 2018-08-16 09:02:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 61,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8096116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/narutoandsasukearecanon/pseuds/narutoandsasukearecanon
Summary: Naruto and Sasuke both have wives and children in Konoha. One drunken reunion gets a bit out of hand, and Naruto drunkenly  accepts to recreate a kiss that happened long ago. This kiss starts a chain reaction, which leads to a confession which has been held for many years.-Trying to stay as true to the series, so N/H and S/S are already canon :(. But there will be twist and turns that leads to a different ending.





	1. A drunken night

**Author's Note:**

> Very first Fan fiction. This series is also found on tumblr <3 http://narutoandsasukearecanon.tumblr.com/post/150355509381/a-kiss-never-forgotten.
> 
> Disclaimer: Don't read it if you don't like the Naru/Sasu pairing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Authors notes: I am finally fixing the formating of the entire thing. For those who requested it, im finally doing it. YAY. I hope this makes reading the stroy 10 times easier, sorry for not doing it properly in the first place but i never thought anyone would read this. "P It shall be a slow process but im not doing anything else untill i fix the formating of this first.

The night was cold as it usually was, Konoha’s leaves rustled in the constant passing wind. Naruto sat at the edge of the bed, tired, overworked and overall depressed. His life had become stacks of paperwork, late nights, loud children and a lack of joy. He often looked back at his younger days, wondering if he could take back the time when he was free to enjoy his youth and lack of responsibilities as the new Hokage and father of two.

 Naruto saw himself getting more drained as the days went by; he dreaded coming home to a noisy house full of people wanted his attention, when he himself needed attention and love. He was overall not ecstatic with his relationship with Hinata, but he never hated it either. In a way, he kind of felt dead inside, or didn’t really feel much emotion, he blamed this on his constant work schedule and intense house life.

“Naruto, are you done changing? We are going to be late”.

Naruto tied his shoe laces and started making his way out of the room, “coming Hinata”.

He hated going to these reunions, he loved seeing his friends again, but it’s never been the same since everyone got married and Naruto became Hokage. He sensed his friends becoming more formal around him, which really ticked Naruto off, he missed how chilled out everyone used to be. Deep down inside he was screaming for things to go back to the way they were, everyone making jokes and being silly around each other. “Huh”, this was going to be a long dinner.

*At dinner*

Naruto stares at his salad and chicken, like his having some sort of glaring competition. Not paying an ounce of attention to the conversations around him, just twirling the lettuce with his fork, wondering when he can go home and sleep. He suddenly springs to life when he feels a tap on his shoulder.

“Ohh Sasuke I’m sorry I didn’t see you standing behind me, did you need something?”

Sasuke’s eyes seemed so full of love at that moment or maybe it was pity, fear or respect? Naruto wasn’t too sure, but all he knew were that his eyes where quite hypnotizing, a thing he automatically believed had to do with the ‘perfect Uchiha genes’.

“Naruto, I was wondering if you would like a drink? Me, Choji, Kiba and Shikamaru where going to have a few beers seeming as the girls are talking about clothes, if you would like to join us?”

“Oh, uh I do have to be up in the morning, but to be honest one beer wouldn’t hurt, plus I’m kind of zoning out anyways.”

Naruto let a surprising happy Sasuke lead him to the restaurant’s bar area where he found the other guys chatting in a friendly manner. Naruto realized the minute they saw Naruto coming in their direction they all straighten up, and acted less loosely as they use to. He wished they could relax, Naruto knew drinking would help loosen his friends up.<

*At the Restaurants bar*

“Oh, hey Naruto, how is work?” Choji’s voice sounded so formal Naruto nearly chocked whilst chugging down his beer surprising fast.

“Choji and everyone else, please stop being so formal around me, I am Hokage now, but it’s okay you are my friends. No need for all these formalities, please let me buy you all another round and we shall celebrate and talk about the good old days, huh?”

Everyone slowly released a tensed breath, but overall seemed happy to admit they were acting to formal, and soon after 3 drinks Naruto was laughing and talking to all his friends like he was 18 again.

*5 drinks of beer later*

Naruto's vision was starting to blur, he lost his balance on his seat whilst laughing hysterically at Choji’s jokes. Naruto felt his heart race a thousand miles per hour. He didnt know the last time he was so relaxed. The weird thing is Naruto was finding himself constantly looking back and forth at Sasuke when he smiled, the guy never smiled, so seeing Sasuke so relaxed and happy made Naruto swell up with joy.

He never knew how much he valued Sasuke in his life, but having him here in Konoha it had seemed to him that a part of his soul had finally had returned. Naruto tipsily walked over to the girls announcing the movement of the group from the restaurant to an actual bar, so that the people eating here won’t be annoyed at how loud the boys where getting. Naruto also knew he couldn’t be seen in public getting too wasted so he managed to pull a few strings and get a private room in this fancy bar only 5 minutes away from the restaurant. He knew there he could relax, have as many drinks as he wanted and not worry about being caught getting wasted.

Funny enough after 6 beers Naruto had completely forgotten about work, he was embracing this rare moment of joy with his friends.

*At the bar*

“Hey everyone! I would like to thank you for all coming out tonight, it has been really great to loosen up and enjoy the company of real friends and loved ones”.

“Cheers to that Naruto”.

As everyone rose their glasses in the air, Naruto could see Sasuke in the corner of his eye smirking straight at him with the cutest grin possible. And for a second the whole world had stopped, Naruto’s heart skipped a beat and Sasuke’s eyes seemed to glow amongst the commotion of clinking glasses of beer and wine. 

Shikamaru started laughing so hard at the other end of the table, Choji following straight after. Naruto’s curiosity got the best of him and he had to find out what was so funny, “hey guys what are you laughing about over there”?

“HAHAHAH, Naruto are you sure you want to be reminded?”

“Remind me of what”, “what is it”?

Naruto started revaluating his most humiliating moments and seemed to find nothing out of the ordinary. He had no idea what they meant, nor did he know what was coming for him.

“Well Choji over here, was just reminding me of your first kiss”.

First kiss? Hmm who was his…Oh Fuck. Naruto started turning bright red as the whole table roared with laughter. Sasuke was suspiciously quite during this outfit of laughter, which concerned Naruto a little bit, but he was too drunk at this point to think.

“Hey guys come on, Sasuke was a great first kiss, I’m just saying Sakura you got a good one there”, the whole table laughed and being the drunken mess they were started having crazy ideas.

“Hey Naruto, me and Sakura have a crazy idea, seeming as your Hokage now and we will probably not be able to get you in an embarrassing situation for a while, we thought we would take advantage of your drunk state”.

“Oh, god Ino, what the hell do you have in mind? If it’s that crazy I demand we all take a round of shots.

*After 2 rounds of shots and a couple of more drinks later*

“So Ino, Sakura what is this crazy idea of yours”?

“Well we are thinking we might recreate your first kiss, but this time let us record it, so we can use it as black mail, in case you make us do terrible assignments as Hokage”.

Naruto drunkenly started to think this over, he didn’t see why not, he obviously had Sakura’s approval all ready and by the smile and joyous laughter of Hinata it seemed she didn’t mind as well. He looked over to Sasuke who was weirdly taking another 2 shots of tequila after the last set of shots. Naruto thought he might just be nervous, because who gets this lucky they get to kiss their hokage?

“Hahaha, okay I’ll do it, only if Sasuke and of course my wife don’t mind?"

Hinata gave him the okay in two seconds, though the minute Naruto turned around to Sasuke he saw his eyes drop straight to the floor. Naruto could have sworn he saw Sasuke’s cheeks turn crimson red, but thought that might be due to the 2 shots of tequila he just had.

“Well Sasuke, what do you think, want to relive the good old days”

“Hmm, if it has to be done dobe then I’ll do it”.

With that statement Ino and Sakura started pulling out their phones with evil glares on their faces; Naruto couldn’t believe how drunk everyone had gotten to get to this state.

“Okay Naruto and Sasuke on 3, 1..2..3”.

Naruto leant in and heard flashes go off in the distance. But something was strange; he couldn’t really sense anyone in the room, it kind of felt like they were alone in this room full of people. He wondered if he had reached his alcohol limit and was going to pass out or something. But there he was kissing Sasuke, strangely it felt like heaven, Naruto completely blamed it on the Alcohol, but dam could Sasuke kiss. Time had stopped at this point and Naruto could have sworn he felt Sasuke dig his lips into Naruto’s, which Naruto strangely loved.

Though soon enough time had to restart and they were forced to pull apart. The world came back to life and the roaring of laughter and flashes came back into Naruto’s hearing range.

“Holy crap that was kind of hot.”

“Ino that’s my husband, but yer, I’m going to keep that one for later."

The room was lit with laughter, and everyone started to settle down from the show. Naruto was light heartedly trying to blend back into the group’s conversation, but everything in his entire body was pulling him back to Sasuke. When he finally decided to look over, Sasuke was slouched over and completely inattentive of the world around him. Naruto’s arms nearly bolted on their own when he saw Sasuke stand up.

“Guys, thank you for a nice night, I’m going to head off first, I think that’s enough alcohol for one day, Sakura I will see you at home”.

As Sasuke quickly left Naruto turned to see Sakura, who had a concerned face, Naruto wondered what the hell just happened. Why would Sasuke just leave like that, he didn’t even take his wife, or say good bye properly to the group. Naruto wasn’t left with much time to really think about it, Hinata had grabbed Naruto’s attention back into the conversation with Choji to her right.


	2. A blurred night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto and Sasuke both have wives and children in Konoha. One drunken reunion gets a bit out of hand, and Naruto drunkenly accepts to recreate a kiss that happened long ago. This kiss starts a chain reaction, which leads to a confession which has been held for many years.
> 
> -Trying to stay as true to the series, so N/H and S/S are already canon :(. But there will be twist and turns that leads to a different ending

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Don't read it if you don't like the Naru/Sasu pairing.

Naruto woke up in a mess, slamming his alarm off before the noise cracked his head into two. Naruto could not remember the last time he got that drunk, he was starting to regret the amount of alcohol he had the night before. His alarm started ringing a second time, he finally decided to get up and look at what time it was. “7.30! Shit.”

“Shh Naruto, my head is killing me.”

“Oh, so sorry Hinata”.

Naruto quietly got out of bed and grabbed his Hokage uniform from the wardrobe and headed for a much-needed shower. The cool running water on Naruto’s body was wakening his half-asleep state. Images started to flood into Naruto’s mind from the night before. He couldn’t quite piece the images together, but he remembered Sasuke’s eyes clearly, his cute smirk amongst the crowed room.

Naruto didn’t even realize he was smiling to himself in the shower and only after realizing how late he was going to be for work did he finally snap out of the daydreams. Naruto couldn’t remember much past the two shots he had taken, but he had sworn he kissed someone, maybe Hinata?

He distinctively remembered the kiss being so passionate, beautiful and downright amazing it made Naruto so satisfyingly happy.

He never felt these ‘butterfly’ feelings anymore with Hinata and usually her kisses were quick and lacked any form of emotion. Naruto was glad that maybe his marriage wasn’t a black hole of emotionless love. That kiss was beyond different to anything he had felt in such a long time, he clearly remembered the soft touch of lips on his own, how desperately the lips wanted to devour Naruto’s.

Though Naruto could not stay in his thoughts for much longer, he had to get to the office and start on today’s papers work and assign some missions that needed to get started immediately. As he left the bathroom, now changed into his Hokage gear he peered into his room where he saw Hinata soundly sleeping. He waited for his heart to start racing, or to feel something. Nothing came, but Naruto wasn’t too worried, if last night was any indication of what’s to come between his wife and him, he was certainly looking forward to it.

  
*At the Hokage’s office*

  
Naruto circled his fingertips around his temples, his head still throbbing from the hang over. He hated the crazy amounts of paper work that he had to do, he loved being Hokage, it had been his dream for so many years. But he had thought it would be more fun than this, he knew the more he whined about it, the later he would have to stay and finish up the stack he was looking at.

The first thing that had to get done was summon Sasuke and his genin team so that he could send them off to Sunagakure, Naruto prepared to send a messenger whilst his thoughts started to ponder what level of drunk did Sasuke get last night?

 From what he could remember Sasuke had a good time, though considering Naruto could only really remember the first part of the night he wasn’t really too sure how the rest of the night had gone.

Not to soon after Sasuke knocked and enter through Naruto’s office door. Naruto didn’t even realize that he was holding onto his breath and intensely staring at Sasuke. He assumed he was still suffering badly from the hang over to have forgotten basic human functions like breathing.

“Sasuke, wow you look like shit, did you get much sleep last night”?

“Hm, not really dobe, now what assignment do you want me to do?”

Naruto felt a bit hurt by how quick Sasuke was to change the subject and how formal and distant he was being, he assumed it was also due to a bad hang over.

“Well Sasuke, I need you and your team to go to Sungakure for a couple of days, Gaara has requested backup. He says that the forest near the village has been holding a few missing nin who are on the bingo book. Uh, Sasuke are you okay? You don’t seem to be paying any attention”.

  
“Huh? Oh, sorry Naruto, I slept badly last night, I guess I had a lot on my mind.”

“No problem Hokage Sama, the job will be done.”

With a blink of an eye Sasuke had taken the assignment from Naruto’s hands and was out the window before Naruto could even say another word. Something in his stomach was unsettled by how strange Sasuke was acting towards Naruto, it seemed like he was sad or annoyed. He had no idea what could have gone wrong last night, maybe he got into a big fight with Sakura over something?

Naruto started on a new pile of stacked up papers, finally starting to gain some focus again on some trades that where currently coming through to Honoha.

Naruto started reaching papers which he hated dealing with, missions which he remembered to be extremely boring to complete when he was a genin. Unfortunately, they had to be done, so he sent a messenger to get Ino and her team.

Naruto knew Ino would kill him for making her go catch a kitty which strayed far from home, but Ino’s team had just recently come back from an intense mission last week and Naruto believed it best to give the genin a breather.

Something in Naruto’s mind sparked and he could have sworn he remembered Ino stating last night that she would black mail him if he gave her shit jobs. Though as hard as he tried to remember what Ino had said his sobering brain just couldn’t figure it out, he just assumed he was making up crazy ideas in his mind.

Ino came through the window, looking less than satisfied to be called at 9.30 in the morning, “Naruto, this better be good, or I swear to God”.

“Ah! Ino, well actually I’m sorry I have to do this to you, I need a team to start the daily kitty hunt.”

“Naruto, I told you last night I would use my black mail on you if you made me do shit assignments, I hope you don’t think I was kidding?”

  
Naruto was trying to remember the haze which was last night and couldn’t remember what Ino had said, but something in his stomach started churning telling him that Ino’s statement was correct.

“Ino look, I know you don’t want to do this and whatever black mail you have on me, I can probably deal with it.”

“Holy cow Naruto, don’t tell me you don’t remember last night?”

“Wait, what happened last night, I got a bit to drunk, so I can’t really remember the second half of the night.”

Naruto could have sworn he saw the devil in Ino’s eyes, her facial expressions turned into a face of pure evil. Her grin reached the top of her ears and the power radiating off her body was enough to send Naruto flying out of his chair.

“Well, well, well Naruto, it seems I have the upper hand this time, I don’t think you would want this flying around all over Konoha?”

Ino pulled out her phone and tossed the phone at Naruto, he caught the phone midair and turned it around to see the screen, everything in his entire body could not have prepared him for what he was seeing, at that moment his brain decided to hit the ‘self-destruct’ button.

“WHAT THE HELL INO!” “HOW DID YOU EVEN CONVINCE ME TO DO THIS?”

“Well you see Naruto, when you’re that drunk your very easy to manipulate.”

Naruto looked at himself in this picture, kissing Sasuke, he wasn’t even sure if he was awake anymore or if this was all a dream, he stared for what felt like hours, gazing at his lips which were intertwined with Sasuke’s.

Naruto couldn’t believe how much he looked like he was enjoying the kiss in the photo. But he thought it may have something to do with the large amount of alcohol he had taken that night.

Suddenly something in Naruto’s mind had clicked, he realized the kiss he had been thinking about this morning, could that have been the kiss he had with Sasuke? No, it couldn’t be, Hinita and him must off kissed later on that night and he was remembering that moment.

Naruto knew that if he deleted this photo off Ino’s phone he would win this fight and get her to do the assignment.

“Naruto, I see your trying to find the delete button. Well you can delete it if you like.”

“Really Ino?”

“But everyone in the group already has a copy and I have about 5 at home just in case.”

“Fuck Ino, I can’t believe you are doing this to me, I am Hokage now and you guys are going to ruin me!”

“Hey in my defense Naruto, I only did it so I would get out of shitty assignments and hey it worked.”

“Hmmph fine, I will find another team, but Ino if I find anyone outside our group who has it, I swear you better run fast because I will find you, and I will kill you.”

“Haha, yer, yer, you don’t have to tell me twice, anyways I shall be going back to bed now, good luck trying to find a cat sitter.”

Naruto’s papers rustled against the wind that Ino created whilst quickly escaping through the window. Naruto sat there staring blankly across his room, he couldn’t believe what he just saw, is this why Sasuke was acting all weird with him? Naruto had a thousand questions and things to sort out in his mind, but he would have to think about it when he got home, firstly a cat was needing rescuing.


	3. The bath house

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto and Sasuke both have wives and children in Konoha. One drunken reunion gets a bit out of hand, and Naruto drunkenly accepts to recreate a kiss that happened long ago. This kiss starts a chain reaction, which leads to a confession which has been held for many years.
> 
> -Trying to stay as true to the series, so N/H and S/S are already canon :(. But there will be twist and turns that leads to a different ending.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Don't read it if you don't like the Naru/Sasu pairing.

Naruto finished up his paper work for the day, stretching out stiff muscles from a long day of work, he decided to call it quits after he reached the third stack of papers. Surprisingly besides Ino’s shocking black mail, everything else had run pretty smoothly throughout the day, which had come to Naruto’s delight.

His brain was only half functioning and all he can really think about was an image which kept replaying in his mind. Naruto jumped across roof tops to his house, he was started to wish he hadn’t sent Sasuke away to Sungakure. How was he meant to talk to Sasuke face to face about what had happened and if everything was okay between them if he wasn’t even in Konoha?

Though Naruto was happy about the time he had alone to think about had happened, he didn’t want to start pushing Sasuke for answers when he hadn’t even had time to process it himself. He was scared though that Sasuke acting strange this morning may be a result to that kiss, maybe Sasuke was uncomfortable? Or maybe he was embarrassed about the situation?

He brought out his keys to unlock his front door. The first thing he was greeted with was loud screaming from two hyper children, Naruto wasn’t in the mood to deal with this today, his head still hadn’t fully recovered and he needed time alone to think.

“Hey Naruto, how was your day?”

“Um, quite busy like always and I was shown that photo of me and Sasuke by Ino, so she got out of cat chasing today, unfortunately for me.”

“Oh, yer that photo, we all got a little bit too drunk if I might say, she sent copies to the group this afternoon, it’s over there above the kitchen sink”. Naruto found the photo tucked underneath a newspaper so that the kids didn’t find it, he still couldn’t believe it was him kissing Sasuke in this photo.

Naruto didn’t even think about it, but by the time he had noticed what he had done the photo was already tucked neatly inside his pocket.

“Hey Hinita, I’m really tired and need to think about some plans that I’m presenting to the elder’s tomorrow, so I might head over to the bath house to think for a bit, okay?”

Naruto was about to leave the house before something in his gut told him that he had to ask Hinata a question he wasn’t too sure he wanted the answer too.

“Hinata, uh I know this is weird, but by any chance did we kiss last night?”

“Hm, no not that I remember? But I’ll give you a kiss now to make up for it?”

Naruto’s mind was racing at a million miles per hour, he didn’t even register or care that Hinata was kissing him. He was stuck in a swirl of thoughts and hazed memories of last night.

“I’m off now.”

Naruto quickly closed the door before Hinata could even say a word. He didn’t even realize how quickly he was walking towards the bath house, but by the time he reached it his breath was heavy from practically jogging there.

*Inside the bath house*

Naruto chucked his clothes inside a locker, grabbed the photo of him and Sasuke, wrapped a towel tightly around his waist and headed off to the bath. He needed to look at the photo again, he didn’t even know why, but every time he saw it his heart would start racing again and he felt something warm build inside himself.

He started walking over to the men’s bath, he was glad he came at such a late hour, most of the clients had already left by this time, leaving Naruto with peace of mind and a little bit more privacy.  He slipped into the warm water, hot clouds of mist swirled around him, he felt his tensed muscles begin to relax in the comforting hot water. Naruto was reaching a state of relaxation only deep hot water and silence could provide.

He picked up the photo from the side of the bath and unfolded it so he could revaluate it again. Naruto traced a finger against the photo, slowly skimming Sasukes lips on his own. Now that Naruto knew who had definitely kissed him on that night, he wasn’t too sure what to think about the whole situation. He couldn’t believe how much he loved the feeling he had whilst kissing Sasuke, he wished he could replay it again and again, so that he could feel it once more.

He left the photo on the side of the bath and decided to let his eyes close for only a moment. Naruto was reimagining those feelings and sensations he was daydreaming about in the morning, but this time he visioned Sasuke, instead of Hinata, the person he assumed was behind all these strange feelings.

*30 minutes after falling asleep in the bath*

“Hokage sama, hello?”

“Huh, Oh I am so sorry, did I fall asleep?”

“Don’t worry about it, we are glad our facilities where of use to you today, but I’m very sorry we are closing for tonight.”

“Ah, no worries I’ll be out in 5 minutes.”

Naruto quickly hopped out of the shower, picked up the photo and left to the locker room to grab his things and leave. As he left the Bath house, he felt a cold night breeze go straight through him, he couldn’t believe he had fell asleep. Naruto knew Hinata wouldn’t be too happy for leaving her with the kids all night. But Naruto was in no mood to rush home, so he decided to take the long route and slowly walk there.

As he circled the village he past the Konoha academy. He sat down at the swing he used to use as a child long ago. As he stared at the trees and dark night that surrounded him, he started to think about how much had changed from when he was a neglected child, left to fend for his own.

He looked back to his younger days and always remembered Sasuke and Sakura being major components to why he could find peace in this world. Team 7 to Naruto was family, he had people he trusted and felt valued by. Though he never remembered Hinata being too much of an influence, he kind of just remembered her being there.

The more he thought about it, the more Naruto realized how fixated he had been on Sasuke back in the day. He clearly remembered being Sasuke’s one true revile, he was his main competition in life and everything Naruto worked towards was to beat Sasuke and prove to him he was going to be the greatest Hokage.

Naruto smirked whilst rocking back and forth on the swing. He wondered if he had made Sasuke proud, or if Sasuke looked up to him now? Naruto wondered to himself, had he achieved everything he wanted? Was he happy in the life he has chosen? Naruto didn’t know the answers anymore.  He let out a long sigh, rubbed his eyes and looked at the ground beneath him.

*Naruto’s home*

Naruto opened the door quietly, hoping he wouldn’t wake anyone up. The house was so quiet, the floors squeaks echoed across the walls as Naruto stepped slowly across the floor.

Naruto decided he was going to sleep on the couch, he didn’t want to wake up Hinata and he was feeling too depressed to have to talk. As he walked towards the cupboard to get a blanket and extra pillows, he could hear his phone message go off in the background.

After setting up his bed for the night, he went over to the kitchen to grab a drink of water and check his phone. He saw a message from Sasuke and his heart literally jumped out of his body. He had no idea why anything involving Sasuke of late made him so jittery. He unlocked his phone to uncover a long message from Sasuke.

 _-Hey dobe, reached Sungakure, thought I send a text rather than send my messenger because it would be quicker. The situation is not good, these missing nin are serious business. I have sent my genin team into the village to aid the locals in evacuation and first aid help. But this is a job for elite shinobi to handle. Send over a team as soon as possible we are going to need back up, also make sure a medic ninja comes, we are already several men down and I don’t know how much longer we can hold them off. Also, Naruto, when I get back to the village, I need to speak to you about last night_. -

Naruto’s entire body had felt like a brick wall had hit it from reading the last sentence, Naruto knew it was most probably something to do with the kiss. Did Sasuke not want to be friends anymore? Maybe he was so uncomfortable with the kiss, that he never wanted to speak about it again?

Naruto was over thinking this, he needed to reply immediately without sounding like a school girl replying to their crush.

“Thanks, Sasuke for the quick response, I will send an anbu member right away to collect a team of 5 jonin to assemble and leave by day light.”

 Naruto stepped outside his house to alert an anbu member to quickly go tell the jonin to get ready, he was sure that the 5-elite shinobi could handle the situation just fine. But for some reason everything in his entire body was screaming at him, he wanted to leave with the 5 shinobi to make sure everything went down smoothly.

Naruto knew he couldn’t because the Hokage needs to stay in the village and protect the people. But Naruto’s natural instincts where telling him to go find Sasuke and protect him. Naruto was already pacing away from his house to the direction of Kakashi’s apartment before he could argue with himself about how stupid he was being.

*Kakashi’s apartment-midnight*

Naruto opened the window slightly, making sure to make as little noise as possible whilst entering Kakashi’s apartment. He knew his stealth mode wouldn’t last very long against Kakashi who had hearing equivalent to that of a trained police dog.

“Naruto, what can I do for you, at such inconvenient hours?”

“Well Kakashi I have a huge favor to ask.”

Naruto didn’t even know why he was acting so nervous and timid, he was the dam Hokage.

“Kakashi I need you to fill in as substitute Hokage for this week.”

Kakashi sat up from his bed, now fully awake and slightly concerned with what Naruto was asking him to do.

“Naruto what is going on?”

“I don’t know why Kakashi, I have a bad feeling, something in my gut is telling me I need to get to the leaf village immediately. Sasuke messaged me this evening about the state of Sungakure, the village is already under alert and being evacuated for safety. From what Sasuke said in his message they are already struggling and this is with a team of Konoha ninja already in place there. 5 high ranking jonin will leave by day light to join forces up there, but I need you to stay here and act as substitute Hokage.”

“Naruto, if 5 shinobi are already going, then why exactly am I filling in your spot, you are Hokage, you shouldn’t be leaving the village unless it was an emergency, you know that Naruto.”

Naruto knew Kakashi was right. Every fiber in his body was working against him at this moment, his heart was telling him to go but his mind knew it was correct to stay in Konoha.

“Look Kakashi, I don’t know why, but my gut is telling me I need to be there and as Hokage there isn’t much you can do to stop me from going.”

“I am leaving now, so before the board of elders and advisors find out, I will be long gone.”

“Well there isn’t much use of me arguing against you when you have your mind set.”

“You better be right Naruto that it’s an emergency situation over there, because you’re going to have a field day when you get back. Trying to convince the elders and advisors that your actions where the correct ones to take, is not going to be an easy task.”

“Thank you Kakashi, well I’m off, remember to tell Hinata for me okay?”

Naruto jumped through Kakashi’s window and ran to his office to get a spare uniform and gear kit so he could leave immediately.

 The wind passed along Naruto’s face as he jumped roof to roof, he started to wonder, was he only going because it was Sasuke who was in danger? Would he have done this if it was any other ninja that had been sent? Naruto was worried about the answer to his own questions, so he decided to put it in the back of his mind and just concentrate on leaving the village as soon as possible.


	4. A thousand pieces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto and Sasuke both have wives and children in Konoha. One drunken reunion gets a bit out of hand, and Naruto drunkenly accepts to recreate a kiss that happened long ago. This kiss starts a chain reaction, which leads to a confession which has been held for many years.
> 
> -Trying to stay as true to the series, so N/H and S/S are already canon :(. But there will be twist and turns that leads to a different ending.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Don't read it if you don't like the Naru/Sasu pairing.

Naruto hurried to grab his gear and his spare uniform. He knew he had to go as undetectable as possible, so he decided to leave all his Hokage possessions in the office. He leaped from his window, and landed softly on the ground. All he had on his mind was to get too Sasuke, his mind was focused on what could be happening, he was so consumed by his thoughts that he didn’t even realize several anbu members were following him to the entry.

Before Naruto could leave the village 3 anbu members had leapt in front of him stopping him from going any further.

“Hokage sama, where are you going? The village will be in jeopardy if you leave.”

Naruto didn’t have time to deal with this, every minute and every second was time he was wasting.

“Look guys it’s okay, I am joining the 5-shinobi leaving for Sungakure, Kakashi will be my substitute. Now I would advise you to step out of my way.”

Even though the anbu seemed reluctant to let Naruto go, they knew they couldn’t defy an order from the Hokage, so hesitantly they moved out of his way. Naruto ran past the gates and leaped to the closest tree branch, stabilizing himself with a little bit of extra chakra around his feet.

He turned back to look at Konoha one more time. He knew everything would be fine, but he hoped Kakashi didn’t make a mess of things whilst he was gone. Kakashi was a great shinobi who he trusted with his life, but he also was the laziest man alive. Naruto looked towards the direction of Sungakure, he knew this was going to be a long journey if he didn’t get started right away. With a buildup of chakra to his legs and feet, he leapt off the tree branch and towards the direction of the Sand village.

*The forest*

Naruto was only 20 minutes into the forest, already the light from Konoha had faded away into the darkness. Naruto started realizing what a bad idea it was to leave before daylight, he couldn’t see an inch in front of him.

He knew he could use Kurama’s help, but he would kill Naruto for waking him up for something so stupid. He decided there was no use fighting it, he jumped down to the ground beneath the trees. He set up a small fire and camp for the night, he would continue as soon as daylight hit.

Naruto paced between the fire and a tree that was nearby, he hated waiting, he wasn’t made to be patient. His nerves where extremely agitated, his heart was reaching 1000 beats per minute and he was starting to feel woozy from all the hyperventilating he was doing.

“Hey Naruto, can you please calm down, I can’t get much rest if you are acting all restless.”

“Kurama?”

“Yes, who else would it be.”

Naruto was glad to hear from his friend, since Naruto became so busy he never got any alone time to himself and thus never got to speak to Kurama anymore. Naruto sat down near the fire, rested his head on a large oak tree and let his eyes shut close.

*Inside Naruto*

“Hey! Kurama, how are you?”

“Naruto, just because I spoke to you once, doesn’t mean I want to chat at 1 in the morning.”

Naruto had kind of forgotten what time it was; his body had stopped being tired the minute he found out his Konoha team was in danger.

“Oh, sorry Kurama, I just thought we could talk, but I’ll let you go back to sleep.”

“Hm, well I’m awake now.”

Kurama drowsily arose from his comfortable position, he stretched out his front legs and let out a deep yawn.

“This better be good Naruto.”

“Well Kurama I’m a bit worried, I have been feeling strange of late.” Silence filled the air, it seemed for a while that neither Naruto or Kurama were going to say anything.

“Argh, why do I feel like this will be a long conversation I’m not willing to listen too. Naruto, I’m a tailed beast, not a therapist, so I’m probably going to be no help.”

“Listen Kurama, I know you can’t help me, but I kind of just want to talk to you and let things off my chest, if you don’t mind me ranting?”

Kurama started to realize this was bit more serious than he was taking it.

“Alright Naruto I’m all ears.”

Kurama got into a more comfortable position to listen to what Naruto was going to say.  Naruto as well joined Kurama, he decided to sit down and relax his tense muscles, he wasn’t even too sure where to start.

“Well Kurama, I have been thinking a lot of late, I haven’t really been happy of late. I uh; how do I say this without sounding horrible. I sometimes regret the life I choose.”

Naruto let out a deep sigh, he was shaking with fear and guilt, he hadn’t actually talked to anyone about how he was feeling.

“There would be nights I stay awake, drowning in the thought that I’m stuck in this marriage, work and father life. Don’t get me wrong, I love my kids with all my heart. It’s just hard you know, to balance work, Hinata and my own happiness. Most of the time there isn’t even enough time in the day for me.”

“That’s why I hadn’t visited you of late. I am annoyed at myself Kurama, I feel like I am being selfish for wanting more. I feel like I’m always asking for more, especially in regards to my marriage. Me and Hinata got married so quickly, the fire which was our love started to dim, a very long time ago. But isn’t that normal for people who have been married for many years?”

“Am I meant to feel this drained and void of any emotion? I’m worried Kurama, that most of the time I can’t feel anything towards her. I feel like everything between us has become so stale and robotic. I miss feeling emotions, I miss the excitement I used to get when I was younger. Is it selfish of me to want more than this? Is it selfish of me to want those butterfly feelings back again, to feel like my heart is going to leap out of my chest when I’m around that special someone? As well Kurama I’m scared that I’m not doing a good job as Hokage, I look at the previous 6 Hokage. I am nothing like them, I feel so worthless in comparison to them.”

Naruto let out a long breath, he felt like he just let go of so much tension he didn’t even know he was holding on his chest.

Kurama was apprehended by the depth and seriousness of the conversation Naruto was having with him, he wasn’t even sure how to respond to something as serious as this.

“Naruto, take a deep breath and calm down, things will be alright. You have to remember that at the end of the day you have a family, but your happiness is also crucial. So, you need to figure out how to balance these elements so that you can find peace.”

“Kurama, there is also something else I’m really concerned about.”

Kurama had no idea how things could get more complicated for Naruto at this point.

“Last night, I kissed Sasuke as a practical joke.”

“Well that’s not too bad, it was a joke, what’s the harm in that?”

Naruto couldn’t believe the words that were about to leave his mouth, “Kurama, that kiss was like nothing I have ever felt before. That kiss made me feel things I hadn’t felt in so many years, those butterfly feelings, that warm fuzzy sensation in my stomach. It was all there. After I found out it was Sasuke, I couldn’t get his lips off my mind, I haven’t stopped thinking about those feelings, it’s been driving me insane. Because I want it again, and I know I can’t have it.”

Kurama was baffled by Naruto’s confession, he was so lost for words he just stayed there slightly gasping.

“Uh Naruto, I know this is different and strange, but it seems to me you might have developed a little crush or something.”

Kurama was trying to hold in a laugh, he knew this was meant to be a serious conversation, but the thought of Sasuke and Naruto liking each other was pretty funny considering their rival history.

“Look Naruto, this is the only sappy nice crap you’re going to hear out of me, so you better be paying attention.”

Naruto was still blushing from embracement from Kurama claiming he had a crush, he tried to push the blush away and give Kurama a dead serious face.

“Okay Kurama, I’m listening.”

“Naruto, I have lived upon this earth for a very long time, this world has always been shrouded in darkness and hatred. Shinobi have been misusing their abilities to create oppression, sadness and fear. For most of my life, which you would know, I was a result of that hatred and hunger for power. I became consumed by the darkness that this cruel world envelops us in. I was used to destroy many lives, I aided in creating this world of darkness.”

“Do you know who showed me the brightness of this world? You. Without you I would have stayed in the darkness. Naruto, you are very special if you haven’t noticed. Even though you were born into a world of hatred, shunned upon by your own village and left alone as a small child. You still seemed to find happiness. That’s what makes you special, you find the light in the darkness. Whilst most shinobi let the overwhelming darkness become there only vision.”

“Naruto when you were young, you were only a spec of light floating in the darkness, but as you grew you gained friendship, love, family and much more. Every time you grew, you would become even brighter, sooner or later you were as bright as the sun. When people meet you, brightness is brought into their own internal darkness. You are so special. Never forget that, as Hokage you are the light that shines for many, you have to remember that you are different, you should take charge of your village the Naruto way. Don’t run the village like the previous Hokage before you. Run the village how you believe you should run it.”

“With Sasuke, I’m going to be honest, I don’t have a lot of wisdom to give to you, all I can say is that you have obligations as a father and a husband, you can’t just run off and have time to figure yourself out. You are important to your children, but as much as family is important, you need to remember that happiness is also important. Without happiness, love and joy cannot be attained. You just need to figure out where that happiness lays.”

Naruto was shocked with Kurama’s statements, his heart was full of raw emotion, he could feel his eyes starting to water.

“Kurama, thank you; really. I needed to hear that.”

“Hm, well you’re not getting any sappier cute crap from me.”

“Haha, thank you, I’ll let you get back to sleep now.”

Naruto took in a deep breath and opened his eyes. He was now surrounded by warmth and the light crackle of embers from a toasty fire.

His heart was beating quickly and tears started to rapidly fill his eyes, he grabbed his legs and wrapped his arms around them. He lowered his head into the middle of his legs. He began to sob; Naruto was letting go of years of buried feelings. As Naruto cried his heart out alone in the forest, he knew when he came back to Konoha he needed to find this balance between happiness, family and work.

*The morning*

Naruto’s tired eyes opened, he heard the calming chirps of birds in the nearby trees. He quickly packed up and poured water on the left-over embers that were still red and hot. He needed to get out of this forest and get to Sunagakure as soon as possible.

The wind starting whipping Naruto’s face, he was reaching absurd speeds which could be harmful if he missed one tree branch. But as soon as the mission was back on his mind he stopped thinking logically. At this point the thought of Sasuke in danger was the only consistence thought inside his head. Naruto’s breath was heavy as he pushed himself to go faster and faster. He wasn’t concerned about exerting himself, he only knew he had to get their as soon as possible.

*The edge of the forest reaching Sungakure*

Naruto was extremely tired; he knew he should be close to the edge of the forest right before the valley of sand that lead to Sungakure. He had only used his own strengths to reach this far, he was saving any extra help for the battle that lied ahead.

The trees around him where blurred by how quickly Naruto was racing through them. He could notice the trees were starting to thin out, they were getting smaller, thinner and browner.

Naruto could start to hear what sounded like shiruken hitting each other. What hit Naruto’s body next was something he wished he wasn’t going to have to face again. He started smelling the crude smell of blood, the scent of hours of fighting and a sickening metallic hint in the air. Naruto’s body became extremely tense; he was so afraid what laid ahead of him. 

His feet pushed harshly against the branches of the trees, enough for the branches to crack underneath Naruto’s pressure on them. His breath was becoming extremely irregular, his heart had lost any form of rhythm, he felt hot and nervous.

Naruto’s eyes started catching glimpses of golden sand which were scattered all over the forest floor. He knew he was extremely close now. Noises started pouring into Naruto’s ears, people were yelling and screaming. The pain in their voices struck a chord in Naruto’s heart, his chest was compressed and everything in his body was set on ‘alert’.

Naruto nearly gasped at the sight of the sand terrain in the distance hidden behind the leaves and branches of the forest. He crushed through all the tree foliage until he harshly fell onto the sand. He felt that hot hit of the direct sunlight, he could see vultures circle the sky in front of him.

He could make out a sand cloud which was in the distance. He knew this would be where the fighting was occurring, so with all his strength he pushed forward and started bolting towards the fight. As he got closer he could see purple light illuminate throughout the cloud, Naruto already knew this was Sasuke’s Susanoo.

He pushed through the lung and leg pain. He was reaching the cloud of sand that had formed from the fighting. He could see Garra in the distance fighting against one of the rouge ninja. Before Naruto could run into the fight and help he had to do one thing. He closed his eyes, silenced the world around him and reopened his eyes.

Now he was glowing and had his bright orange six paths and Kurama’s energy flowing around him. He flew through the sand mist; his first obligation was to save as many injured ninjas. But he also had to look for Sasuke. Where could he be?

“Fire Bolt Jutsu. Chidori!”

Sasuke! Where was he? Naruto was looking everywhere. This dam cloud of sand was blurring his vision.

“Sasuke!”

Silence. Naruto was trying to sense Sasuke’s chakra in the mist of fighting and sand that swirled around him. He sensed it over to his right. He was shocked by how little chakra he could sense from Sasuke. He flew as quickly as possible towards the faint flickers of Sasuke’s chakra.

“Sasuke! Where are you?”

“Naruto?”

Naruto’s heart at this stage was working overtime, his body was already on edge by the enormous amounts of fear he felt. As Naruto jumped down, he could see two figures fighting just ahead of him.

“I’m coming Sasuke.”

There was no response, just noises of grunting and metal hitting each other. There was a bright electrical flash sent through the sand cloud. He could see one of the figures doge the attack flawlessly.

Naruto could finally start to see the two figures, Sasuke’s uniform was tattered, the rouge ninja seemed to be having the upper hand in the battle. Naruto was still a fair distance away from Sasuke. He physically pushed himself to get to him as quick as possible. His eyes never left Sasuke’s.

“Sasuke!”

As Sasuke turned towards Naruto, he collapsed straight to the floor. Only then did Naruto see the large metal rod sticking right through Sasuke’s body, now drenched in his blood, quickly tainting the golden sand beneath it.

Naruto’s heart at that moment had felt like 5 knives had projected themselves into him. His lungs felt like they were being starved of oxygen and his eyes quickly filled with hot water. He reached Sasuke and held him in his hands.

“SASUKE! PLEASE DON’T CLOSE YOUR EYES.”

“Hm dobe, you are late.”

Sasuke smirked, looked fondly into Naruto’s eyes and then slowly his smile disappeared, his eyes shut and his body went limp. Naruto could feel a hot, fiery sensation build inside himself. He was starting to become consumed with hatred.

With a blink of an eye, red hot chakra started surging outside of him. He felt enormous amounts of chakra build inside himself and soon enough that chakra became unstable. Naruto looked at the rouge ninja in front of him.

“YOU! You are going to regret killing Sasuke!”

_-Just like that Naruto was no longer a controlled Hokage, he was a young kid again, on the bridge of the land of waves. -_


	5. Heart beat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto and Sasuke both have wives and children in Konoha. One drunken reunion gets a bit out of hand, and Naruto drunkenly accepts to recreate a kiss that happened long ago. This kiss starts a chain reaction, which leads to a confession which has been held for many years.
> 
> -Trying to stay as true to the series, so N/H and S/S are already canon :(. But there will be twist and turns that leads to a different ending

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Don't read it if you don't like the Naru/Sasu pairing.

Naruto could only see red; he was stuck inside the hatred that consumed him.

“SASUKE!”

His tears where running down his face, his heart felt dead and everything inside was set on fire.

“SASUKE! Please no. No!”

Naruto was surrounded by immense amounts of chakra that was uncontrollably flowing out of his body, he couldn’t focus on anything else.  Judgement and reason were chucked out a long time ago.

His breathing was deep and intense, his arms seemed to have glued themselves around Sasuke’s limp body. Naruto summoned chakra grabbing Sasuke with Kuruma’s energy, lifting him off the ground and taking him away to safety. Naruto was still firmly placed between Sasuke and the rogue ninja, he made sure Sasuke was far away before he decided it was finally time to get down to business. Naruto looked at the rogue ninja, who seemed at ease in Naruto’s presence. This aggravated Naruto.

“I would be worried if I were you.”

*The battle*

Naruto was becoming extremely annoyed with the rogue ninja, he kept a stone-cold face on, never budging at Naruto’s exclamations of killing him. Naruto surged through the sand towards the rogue ninja. As quick as a blink of an eye Naruto was at his neck, kunai to his throat.

“You better start begging for forgiveness.”

“Hm, Naruto Uzumaki why would I beg for forgiveness to you. The worthless Hokage from Konoha. A pathetic and useless shinobi. How is Kakashi? I will let him know you said hi when I go pay Konoha a little visit. The village deserted by their own Hokage, I wonder how well that would go?”

Naruto was apprehended. How did this ninja know who he was? How did he know he left Kakashi in charge? Who was this person?

“Who are you!?”

“Why do you think I should answer you Naruto? Especially when you’re about to die?”

Naruto could suddenly sense a kunai pressed to his back, his eyes could glimpse another person behind him. The Kunai was pushed forward and Naruto transformed into a log. He appeared to the left of now two rogue ninja, “hmm so there is two of you?”

“Well two can play that game. Multi shadow clone justu.”

Naruto could sense an over whelming support build behind him. Several clones of himself started surging forward. Build ups of immense chakra led to several wind shiruken slamming in the area where the two-rogue ninja where standing.

A smirk rose on Naruto’s face. That should have got them. As the sand settled, Naruto was sure he was going to see two knocked out ninja, instead both of them hadn’t even budge a centimeter and not a scratch had landed on either of them. This was going to be a longer battle than he expected.

*After the battle*

Naruto was exhausted, after what seemed hours of fighting, he was in a rough state, his uniform tattered and his hands where covered in blood. His vision was blurred and his breath was heavy.

He had to get back to Sasuke, he had to see if he was alive. He used all his force to push up with his wounded arms, he was in so much pain that he could barely stand up straight. He slowly made it up and starting running towards the entry of Sungakure, the sand whipping his face and body stung against his skin. 

He was so worried about Sasuke that his whole body was numb to the pain.

He saw the entry to the village in the distance, his eyes started watering and he got excited by the thought that maybe the medical team had saved Sasuke. He reached the front gates and suddenly everything turned black. He opened his eyes to see that his face was covered in sand, his body felt like it was being pressed into the ground.

“Naruto!?”

Garra was surrounding Naruto in his sand lifting him above the ground.

“Naruto stay with me! We are getting you to the hospital!”

*Hospital*

“Naruto!?”

“Garra? What happened. WHERE’S SASUKE!?”

 Garra’s eyes looked exhausted and blood shot, his face was heavy with tiredness.

“Naruto, please stay calm. Sasuke is still in emergency, he isn’t responding to any treatment. The rod inside of him was poisoned, it spread quite quickly. He has been in emergency for over an hour. His heart beats are getting smaller and smaller. I’m sorry Naruto.”

Naruto’s heart started to feel like it was going to erupt, his eyes started watering.

“No, Garra I can’t lose him. I can’t!”

Naruto pulled all the tubes that where inside him, he jumped off the bed and started running towards emergency.

“Naruto! You can’t!”

Naruto was blurring out Garra’s voice, he didn’t care if he couldn’t go in. He had to see Sasuke.

“Naruto look at me.”

Naruto turned to face Garra, burdened with worry, eyes red from tears and heart beating quicker than normal.

“Garra, I can’t lose him.”

“I know Naruto, but his not good, I don’t think it would be good for you to see him.”

“I have to!”

Naruto starting walking towards the emergency door, he stood in front of the door, hand on the handle, crying and heavily breathing. Was he ready to see what was behind the door?

Naruto pulled the handle and was immediately hit with shock from the scene that played in front of him. Sasuke was on the emergency table he had 5 medical ninja working on him, there were several fluid systems connected to him. Almost all of the shouting and yelling was blurred to Naruto, all he could focus on was Sasuke’s limp body on the table. He didn’t know how much longer he could be in here.

“Where losing him!”

Naruto turned around and walked out the emergency room. He didn’t even look back at Garra his eyes where beyond red and everything hurt inside him. He ran out of the hospital and went to the edge of the village, not knowing where he was going he just wanted to get away.

Far away.

*Edge of the sand village*

Naruto’s legs swung in front of him, he didn’t really know where he had run off to. But he was glad to find a place to think. He sat at the edge of a large wall that protected the inner village.

Naruto was so lost he felt like a part of him was ripped out. His heart had been through so much pain today. He didn’t even know if it was still functioning. His hands where shaking, his breathing became deep and his eyes where shut closed, he rocked on the edge of the wall sobbing.

“Naruto, if you are planning on killing yourself, please don’t do it in my village. I don’t want Konoha to think I had anything to do with it.”

“Hm? Oh,hey Garra.”

Naruto was glad Garra came, he didn’t trust himself to be alone anymore. He was on the verge of giving up on everything, he felt so lost in this overwhelming pain, he begged for all of it to stop.

“Naruto, I have news about Sasuke.”

 Naruto’s eyes widened. Was he ready to hear that his friend was dead, was he ready to let go of someone who was so important to him?

“Garra, I can’t. I’m not ready.”

Naruto’s heart had already been ripped to a thousand pieces from seeing Sasuke losing life so quickly.

He couldn’t believe he was about to say this out loud, but nothing else but this made sense for why he felt like this.

“Garra…I Love him.”

“Naruto, I know.”

Naruto’s eyes widened and he grabbed Garra into a hug and sobbed loudly on his shoulder. He couldn’t believe Garra had knew.

“Naruto, Sasuke is alive.”

“HE IS ALIVE!?”

Naruto felt air coming back into his lungs his entire body felt such euphoria, an overwhelming sensation he had never felt before.

“HIS ALIVE! Thank you Garra. Really thank you.”

Naruto got up and started bolting towards the hospital.

*Hospital*

Naruto ran through the door making a straight line to the emergency, his heart was beating so quickly, his breath was deep and heavy. He saw the red emergency light down the corridor, his eyes where blurred with tears.

“Naruto, before you open that door, just remember his still unconscious, he won’t wake up for a couple of days.”

“Thank you Garra.”

Naruto opened the door to the emergency room, he took in a deep breath and walked in. His heart leapt at the vision of Sasuke laying there on the bed.

He was so overly happy to see his chest move up and down on its own. Naruto felt like his own breathing was starting to mimic Sasuke’s, as if his body would only take a breath if he saw Sasuke do so as well.

He closed the door behind him and slowly walked towards Sasuke’s fragile body. He felt his feet move forward, but it seemed like Sasuke didn’t get any closer. He needed to reach him, to see him face to face.

He reached the side of the bed, slowly looking up and down Sasuke’s body. He couldn’t believe he had done this to Sasuke, why would he send him, Naruto knew a lot of ninja where out for Sasuke’s head. He should have gone with him from the start. He looked at the bruises and cuts which tainted his porcelain skin, his ribs were also broken, 3 or 4 to be precise and his breath was deep and irregular.

There were several tubes and fluids all around Sasuke, a heart monitor keeping track of his irregular heartbeat. His face was scratched up, his eyes closed.

Naruto couldn’t stop his body, but by the point he realized what he was doing his hands where firmly placed on Sasuke’s face and he was kneeling in.

He stopped 2 centimeters away from Sasuke’s face, just to look at how beautiful and perfect it was. He couldn’t imagine what he would have done if Sasuke had died and it had been all his fault.

Naruto breathed in, closed his eyes and kissed Sasuke. For a second there he thought he felt Sasuke kiss him back, but he knew he was unconscious. He moved back, and had one more look at Sasuke.

Naruto was glad Sasuke would be okay, he gave him a quick hug, and left the room. He didn’t want Garra to come in and find him all over Sasuke. He knew that these feelings had to stop, he had a wife and kids, he thought that kiss would be the last of it.

He could watch Sasuke from a far, to make sure he was okay, and safe. But he decided not to mention the kiss to him, or to Garra. He hoped Garra will also not say anything about his confession. He loved his family and he knew he felt something much deeper for Sasuke. But he couldn’t just leave his family.

He knew what he felt towards Sasuke was something different and rawer than what he felt towards Hinata. He walked outside the Emergency room, only to find Garra leaning on the wall, arms folded.

“So, Naruto? Sasuke huh?”

“Look Garra, please for me and my kids, don’t mention this. I need to sort this out, but please don’t mention it?”

“Of course, Hokage sama, hmm though you have always kind of had an obsession with him. To be honest, I’m surprised you didn’t figure it out for yourself much earlier.”

Naruto wasn’t even shocked anymore by all these statements, maybe it was more obvious than he thought and Naruto was the only one who didn’t realize it. He had a lot to sort out, right now wasn’t the time. Now that Sasuke was safe he needed to get back to Konoha with his genin team and anbu and make sure his village was safe.

He didn’t know how long it was going to be before Sasuke woke up, but he knew he would be safe in Garra’s hands. Naruto walked back to Garra, “Garra, can I ask for one last favor?”

“Hm, go on?”

“Keep Sasuke safe for me? I need to go back to Konoha, just in case any of the rogue ninja went back.”

“I understand Naruto, don’t worry I will take care of your little Sasuke.”

“Garra, I swear to god!”

Naruto left Garra laughing to himself to find his team, he didn’t have much time to waste. In ten minutes, he was out of Sunagakure and on his way back to Konoha.


	6. surprise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto and Sasuke both have wives and children in Konoha. One drunken reunion gets a bit out of hand, and Naruto drunkenly accepts to recreate a kiss that happened long ago. This kiss starts a chain reaction, which leads to a confession which has been held for many years.
> 
> -Trying to stay as true to the series, so N/H and S/S are already canon :(. But there will be twist and turns that leads to a different ending.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Don't read it if you don't like the Naru/Sasu pairing.

Naruto lead his team back to Konoha, the minute they walked through the gate he thanked his team for their efforts and started walking towards his office. He knew he had to get the worst over, which was dealing with the elders and team of advisors who were probably fuming at Naruto’s departure.

Naruto hated dealing with most of them, they usually drilled his head in. He was so different to them, he was more level headed then most of them and their old idealistic views.

Well there was no delaying it, he took a deep breath in and walked towards his office. As he walked towards the office he noticed the beauty which was Konoha, even though he had only been away for roughly 3 days, he couldn’t believe how much he missed the place.

He decided to walk through the doors instead of jumping through the windows like most shinobi did. As he walked through the corridors all of the staff greeted him with smiles and handshakes. He opened the door to his office to find Kakashi leaning into his chair, feet on the table and ‘make out tactics’ book in his hand.

“Kakashi, seems like you have been busy?”

“Naruto!”

 Kakashi seemed absolutely delighted to see Naruto again.

“Naruto, I missed you, I don’t know how you deal with so much paper work daily. Garra sent us a messenger about what happened in Sunagakure, seems your gut feeling was correct. A meeting with the team of advisors and the elders has already been arranged for later on tonight.”

“Yer, I thought it would be pretty soon.”

Naruto started wondering how Sasuke was doing, he was still worried about him, he just wanted him to come back to Konoha so he could make sure nothing like this ever happened again.

“Kakashi, did Garra say anything about Sasuke?”

“Hm, no? Why did something happen?”

“Yer, he nearly died Kakashi, it was horrible, I had never been so angry in my life, I lost control for a minute there.”

Kakashi looked at him with shocked eyes. “Hm, well he is okay now.”

Naruto knew he was okay, but there was still this lingering sensation that something would happen to Sasuke on his way back to Konoha.

“I guess you are right Kakashi, anyways I’ll take over for now, but I’ll see you for the board meeting?”

“Yep, see you there.”

Kakashi left and Naruto took his seat. He wondered if he should go see his family, but he only had 2 hours left till the meeting. He decided it was best to think about what he was going to say to the board.

*Meeting*

Naruto took in a deep breath, his hands where shaking. Dealing with the elders always scared Naruto. He clumsily turned the door handle and walked into the dim lighted room.

“Sorry, I’m a bit late.”

The stares that where being directed at Naruto could burn a hole straight through him. Kakashi was in the back leaning against a wall, not giving a care about anything going on or the evil glances being directed to Naruto.

Naruto walked forward to the Hokage’s chair and took a seat. He knew this was going to be a tough meeting.

“So, Naruto would you care to explain your immediate departure, without warning us? Could you imagine what would have happened if Konoha went under attacked whilst you were gone? And for what? Sasuke and 3 genin?”

Naruto could feel himself getting hot with rage. He couldn’t believe the audacity of some of the people sitting at this table.

“What are you saying, I just let them die? Did you know if I didn’t go when I did, Sasuke would be dead right now? Lives were on the line. Are you saying this isn’t a good enough reason to go?”

There was silence in the room, everyone was shocked by how straight forward Naruto was being.

“Naruto, as much as your actions were noble, they were not the correct ones to take.”

 An elder stood up and started walking forward to the side of the table where Naruto was sitting.

“Let’s not mention Naruto, Sasuke isn’t a valued Shinobi in Konoha, don’t forget who he is. Without you as Hokage, he would have never been accepted back.”

Naruto was now pissed, steam was fuming out of his ears, he was trying to stay calm. He took a few deep breaths in and gripped his fingers on the edge of the table.

“Sasuke betrayed this village, he deserved to die a long time ago, you should have never left Konoha for that lowly bastard.”

That was it, Naruto was furious. He got out of his chair and walked straight to the elder, he looked at him straight in his face.

“Look here, I don’t care what you think about Sasuke. And if you say another bad thing about him. I will make sure, you never come back to the board again.”

The room was shocked and appalled from Naruto’s aggressive actions towards one of the highest-ranking elders. Kakashi had abruptly stood up from leaning against the wall. Naruto pushed himself away from the elder, trying to calm himself. As he walked away back to his seat, he heard the elder snicker and say under his breath, “scum”.

Naruto turned back, chakra infusing, hot rage building up.

“Say it again. Do it.”

 Kakashi jumped in between both of them, “Naruto, calm down.”

Naruto turned around went straight for the door opening it and slamming the wooden door behind him. Kakashi was left in the room absolutely shocked, he was trying to calm everyone down and explain that Naruto was restless from lack of sleep and wasn’t thinking straight.

Naruto walked out of the office and ran. He couldn’t stop; he just kept running. He found himself on top of his father’s monument, overlooking Konoha. He needed to breathe, he needed to calm down. He knew he was over reacting. He started wondering how Sasuke was doing, was he awake now, was he in pain?

*Naruto’s home*

Naruto was so frustrated, he just needed to get home, go to his bed and sleep. He opened the door and was greeted by two very happy kids, he smiled and ran to hug both of them.

“Boruto, Himawari I missed you guys.”

As he hugged his children, he knew his love for them would never change, they were worth everything his very existence. Enough to try and work through this struggle of not being emotionally connected with his wife anymore. Maybe if they tried harder?

“Hey Hinata, sorry about running off without telling you.”

She looked at Naruto with anger in her eyes, but also a bit of relief.

“Naruto, I’m glad you’re okay.”

He got up, went to give her a hug waiting to feel anything. But as he grabbed her into a tight embrace he felt nothing.  He stepped back and went back to his kids, grabbing one in each arm, he took them to their rooms to spend some time together and played with them.

He told them stories of Sunagakure, the forest, parts of his talk with kuruma and the ninja he faced in battle.

He kissed both of them goodnight and snugged them into their bed. He walked out of their rooms, heart full of joy. He loved those two buggers.

As he walked down the corridor he started to think about Sasuke lying there in the hospital bed nearly dyeing and how much it killed him to think he was dead. He walked into his room, Hinata was already in bed reading a book.

He felt like his heart dropped a bit, he wished he could make the spark come back. He begged for it to come back, he got into bed with Hinata. He turned his back to her and tried to sleep, Hinata also went to bed slipping into tiredness next to him.

Naruto couldn’t sleep properly, he kept reimaging Sasuke falling to the ground. Blood everywhere, his limp body in his arms. He was sweating, shaking.

He woke up screaming.

“Naruto? What’s wrong?”

“Hinata, sorry I had a nightmare, go back to bed.”

*The next day*

Naruto walked to his office, exhausted from the lack of sleep he got the previous night before. His head was spinning from the constant memories of Sasuke slowly dying in his arms and the memory of his lips on his own. He needed to stop this, he needed to forget what had happened.

He got into his office and found piles of paper work stacked up, did Kakashi do anything whilst he was gone?  He sat down and groaned, he didn’t want to do any of this paper work that was sitting in front of him. He started writing on the first document that needed approval, but his mind wasn’t there. His brain was consumed by other thoughts.

He heard knocking on the front door, who could this be? He had only started his paper work; could he not get some work done without a crisis happening?

“Hey, Naruto, sorry to come so early.”

Naruto’s heart leapt through his body, he felt butterflies build inside his stomach. He knew that voice. He looked up to see Sasuke, still bandaged, limping and smiling at him. He was smiling. If that didn’t melt his heart right there and then, he didn’t know what could.

Naruto got up and walked straight to Sasuke. What was he doing? He grabbed Sasuke in a long hug, and forcibly made himself let go. He had to let go.

He walked back to his table, sat down and tried to calm his beating heart.

“Sasuke, I’m relieved you’re okay. You had me worried.” “Hm, dobe, I am thanks to you. Thank you, Naruto.”

Sasuke was looking at Naruto like he was the only one that mattered in the world. This was killing Naruto he couldn’t be weird; he couldn’t stay normal when Sasuke was looking at him like this. Sasuke was walking forward to Naruto, he sat at the edge of the table. Naruto was blushing profusely he was trying to not act flustered.

“Sasuke, you should probably go to the hospital you still don’t seem that well.”

“Hm, Garra told me not to leave but I wanted to get here and see you as soon as I could.”

Naruto could feel his ears turn red.

“Why in such a rush?”

Sasuke got up and went towards Naruto, he leant down and looked Naruto straight in the face.

“Sasuke, what are you doing?”

Sasuke got closer to Naruto, they were only centimeters away from touching lips. Naruto was going to crack at any minute. He closed his eyes and decided to pretend he wasn’t there. Tried to pretend that Sasuke wasn’t this close to him.

He felt Sasuke’s lips press against his. He was completely intoxicated by Sasuke, it felt like heaven being in this moment with him. His head was spinning; his heart was beating so quickly. Sasuke pulled away. Naruto stayed there gasping in shock, “Sasuke? What the hell was that for?”

Sasuke moved back towards the door.

“Hm, dobe, let’s just say I kind of woke up for a second when I was on that medical table and found myself being kissed by you. I was just paying back the favor. See ya later usuratonkachi.”

Naruto was left there with his jaw on the table, he couldn’t believe what had just happened.

“Shit, what am I going to do?”

Naruto couldn’t breathe; he couldn’t believe Sasuke had just kissed him, and the fact that he knew that Naruto kissed him, what was he going to do?

“Fuck.”


	7. Sunsets, trees and You.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto and Sasuke both have wives and children in Konoha. One drunken reunion gets a bit out of hand, and Naruto drunkenly accepts to recreate a kiss that happened long ago. This kiss starts a chain reaction, which leads to a confession which has been held for many years.
> 
> -Trying to stay as true to the series, so N/H and S/S are already canon :(. But there will be twist and turns that leads to a different ending.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Don't read it if you don't like the Naru/Sasu pairing.

Naruto has been on edge all week, he was constantly looking over his shoulder, jumping whenever anybody called out his name. He was so afraid Sasuke would be there every time, he wasn’t sure what he was going to say to him, or how he was going to act.

Naruto decided it was best to ignore it and put it in the back of his mind, that’s the only way he knew how to deal with anything. At this stage, he hadn’t seen Sasuke for a week, he knew he wouldn’t be seeing him for a little while longer, considering he was still recovering and going back and forth between the hospital and his bed.

 Naruto was glad that Sasuke was being taken care off, but a gut feeling knew he was jealous that it wasn’t him taking care of Sasuke. He decided for the weekend to take Hinata out for a meal and walk around the village, he was praying that with the kids out of the way he could somehow bring back spark sback into his marriage.

 He was determined to make this work, he didn’t want to ruin his marriage and make his children resent him, even though Buroto has always hated him.

Naruto rubbed his temple, he never thought it would be so hard being a father, but how was he meant to be a great one when he had no one to teach him. He was always left to his own devices, left to figure out everything on his own. Naruto struggled to understand how he could fix this, why wasn’t his family life working out like everything else did?

He always believed if you tried hard enough and never gave up on something you can always achieve it, but his words were starting to betray him, because God knows his tried to fix this, tried to be a better father and tried to feel anything towards Hinata. For years now his affections towards Hinata have been basically nonexistent, but he always thought it was due to work or the fact that they concentrated more on the children, but he misses the spark he used to feel.

“Naruto?”

“Oh, Tenten, sorry I was uh… zoning out, what can I do for you?”

 Tenten smiled at Naruto, she relaxed her tensed shoulders.

“I just need to leave my report; I was walking by so I thought I would personally drop it off.”

“Haha, no one ever does that anymore, well at least no one has used my front door to do that in a while. I need to regain some order in this village about using my door instead of jumping through my windows. Haha, well thank you, just chuck it in here with the rest of the crap I need to do today.”

Tenten smiled, dropped the paper and left through the front door, sending a friendly wave to Naruto as she left. Naruto let out a depressed sigh, every time he starts thinking about his life and other issues he gets reminded that his Hokage and that he has a job to do, one that seems to have a never ending pile of paper work. Naruto grabbed a document on his left and started reading it, he grabbed out his pen and starting writing notes.

With a long sigh, he started his long day at work.

*The weekend*

Naruto woke up early on Saturday morning, excited that it was the weekend. He loved the weekend, because it meant he didn’t need to do paper work, unfortunately the Hokage never gets a day off, but he was allowed to do whatever he wanted and if something important turns up they will send him a messenger hawk or text him if it’s an emergency. 

Naruto got out of bed and let Hinata sleep in, he had a quick cold shower to wake himself up. He was so excited for the weekend that he decided to cook his family pancakes before they woke up. Naruto was the earliest riser in the family, considering he was used to waking up at retarded hours due to his job.

He looked around the kitchen, grabbed flour, sugar, milk, eggs, syrup and started making pancakes. He heated the pan and started whistling to himself whilst cooking a dozen pancakes for when the rest of the Uzumaki family decided to get up.

As he finished cooking the last pancake, he set the table, leaving the pancakes in the middle, with strawberries and maple syrup on the side. He made a hot cup of coffee for himself and Hinata, and poured juice into plastic cups for the kids. By the time everything was set up Naruto could hear footsteps around the house.

“Hey sleepy heads, rise and shine, come and get breakfast.”

Everyone started pouring out of their rooms, Hinata was rubbing her droopy eyes. “What’s all this Naruto?”

“Well because I have been gone of late and I’m always busy I thought I would make everyone a treat.”

Boruto just folded his arms and scolded him, whilst Himawari’s face lit up with the biggest smile.

“Yay, pancakes! Thanks daddy!”

Everyone sat around the table, laughing and enjoying each other’s company, the atmosphere was warm and beautiful. Naruto knew that no matter what happened between him and Hinata personally, he will never ruin his family. Even if they decided to get a divorce, he would actively make sure that his kids are the happiest they could be.

Everyone started to clean up and finish, the children had already ran up to their rooms to play in the game room. Hinata was left in the kitchen sipping her coffee, looking at Naruto with nothing but empty eyes.

“Thank you for breakfast it was very nice of you.”

“Uh, no worries it was nice for a change, Hinata sorry I have been so busy lately and I haven’t really been around. How about I try and make it up to you? Let’s go out to dinner tonight, we can get a baby sitter, or ask Sakura to look over the kids and bring Sarada over?”

Hinata’s expression changed dramatically, as if she were more awake and happy.  Her eyes had a glitter in them, something Naruto knew was hope. A look he has seen a million times and something he himself was quite familiar with.

“Sounds lovely Naruto.”

“Perfect 7pm sharp, be ready. I will let Sakura know. For now, I have to head into the office for some quick finalizations on some paper work and then I’m off to train in the training grounds. I will be back later, I can spend some time with the kids and then we will go?”

Hinata’s eyes dropped to the ground when Naruto said he had work, but she sighed and agreed to let him go. Naruto knew it was hard being Hokage and this is just how life is for him and Hinata, being the leader of a village has its cons as well as its perks.

Naruto collected his gear and headed out for the door, before leaving he turned around to see Hinata staring of into the distance, sipping her coffee looking saddened.

“Hinata, 7pm okay?”

“Yes Naruto, go or you will be late.”

“Okay bye Hinata!”

*Training grounds*

After Naruto got some documents checked over by the board and finalized his paper work he started to head off to the training grounds. Now that Naruto was Hokage training was a privilege he got only a couple of times in a month, depending how busy he was on the weekend.

He was glad he got the most important paper work done this week, he hasn’t had a training session for weeks. His whole body was screaming for the adrenaline and the sensation of pushing yourself, he missed the feeling of sore worn out muscles after a good training session.

Naruto as well as working out wanted to try some new techniques and improve on some jutsu he already had in his arsenal. As he approached the training grounds he could sense a very familiar chakra.

It was Sasuke, was he also training? Wasn’t Sasuke still meant to be healing? If his out here he must be better. Naruto thought for a second how amazing it would be to train with Sasuke again. There is nothing like going all out with someone who is pretty much equal strength to you. Sasuke and him, always had the best sparing matches, he missed the focus and strength it took to keep up with Sasuke. He was one of the only ninjas in this entire village able to keep up with Naruto.

Naruto knew he couldn’t stay, he wasn’t ready to look Sasuke in the eye, he wasn’t sure what he would say to him or even how he would act. Naruto was pretty sure he would start acting like a 12-year-old school girl around him and blush until he looked like a ripe tomato.

Naruto turned around and started walking back to the village, annoyed that he wasn’t going to train he started kicking rocks from the dirt path into the bushes next to him.

“You look like a kid doing that.”

Naruto could already feel his heart starting to race, he could sense a familiar warm sensation starting to rise on his cheeks. He had to remind himself, he is Hokage, he needs to act normal, show no emotion.

“Sasuke, I was just leaving, please don’t let me disturb your training.”

“Don’t worry dobe, I was actually finishing up, didn’t train for long just wanted to try out some new techniques. Unless you want to spar I can head back to the village with you?”

Naruto had now fully turned to face Sasuke, which he immediately regretted. He had sweat running down his neck and body, his shirt had a deep v which covered basically nothing. How can this man be so perfect?

“You want to spar against me Uchiha? Haha, I wouldn’t go easy and I don’t want to hurt that perfect smug face of yours.”

Naruto was hating himself for acting like he was a teenager again, but for some reason Sasuke always brought out this side of Naruto. He loved the banter and competitive drive that sparked between himself and Sasuke.

“Hm dobe, try me.”

Sasuke’s lips and eyebrows curved up into a smirk.

“Oh, it is on Uchiha. But rules, only taijutsu, I don’t want to blow up the entire village and get it blamed on me.”

“Hm, deal.”

*Spar*

“Naruto it’s been a while since we have spared, I hope you haven’t lost your touch since our last fight at the Valley of the end.”

“Tch, you think you can win against the Hokage? I doubt that!”

Naruto blinked and as he opened his eyes Sasuke was right next to his face, sharigan shining against his tanned skin.

“Hm, dobe you are way too relaxed to be ready for a fight.”

“HEY! I didn’t know we were starting and teme that’s cheating no sharigan!”

Sasuke stepped back and deactivated his sharigan. He stepped across Naruto and gave him the unison sign and took a challenging stance securing his feet on the ground, ready for any blow that could be directed at him. Naruto loved how fun it was to be challenged by Sasuke, he truly was a skilled ninja who surpassed many other shinobi he met.

“Alright then Sasuke, let’s do this.”

Naruto took his stance, looking at the position Sasuke was in. He tried to find any spot the Uchiha had left open or wasn’t paying attention too, but he must give it to the man he had taken the best possible stance covering all areas, allowing himself to jump and fall back easily.

“Hm, Sasuke, doesn’t seem like you are going to let this be easy, so if your serious then I might as well get comfortable.”

Sasuke raised a questioning eyebrow at Naruto, still not letting his stance go. Naruto decided he would take of his Hokage cloak and take his top off, if this was going to get serious he wanted full flexibility to beat the shit out of his friend.

As Naruto took his top off he could see Sasuke’s eyesight diverge away from Naruto’s body and instead focus on some nearby tree. Naruto knew this was the only time he was going to be able to get Sasuke whilst he was distracted.

Naruto flew at Sasuke and kicked him back a few meters, Sasuke dug his feet into the ground to slow down the massive impact Naruto’s kick had made on him, his feet left torn grass and dirt tracks from where he was pushed from.

“Hahaha, your easily distracted Sasuke, can’t handle a little peep show huh?”

Naruto was feeling so young and happy, he missed this banter and the excitement of agitating Sasuke.

“Hm, you wish your peep show was that hot, but if where stripping I will gladfully join you.”

Naruto gulped, was Sasuke also going to take off his top?

Sasuke took his top off, stretched out his muscles and cracked his knuckles, he started rolling his neck muscles and seemed to have a taunting grin on his face. Naruto never realized how perfect Sasuke was, the man looked like he was carved by angels.

Naruto couldn’t get distracted he had to… he felt a sharp pain on his back, he realized he had been kicked towards a wall of sharp rocks.

“Oh, this is on! Sasuke I wouldn’t even blink if I were you.”

“Tch, it’s not me who just got distracted by a little shirt off action.”

Naruto was annoyed he fell for his own tricks, but he wouldn’t fall for it again, he was fully awake right now. He was more than awake he was alive and truly more himself than he has been in years.

The adrenaline kicked in and he could feel his own chakra flow inside himself, the power and hunger for training was something he truly missed. But this was even better, this was something only Sasuke could ever make him feel and he loved how much the man brought out this eager younger version of himself out.

Both ninja flung at each other at the same time, both defending themselves with their arms. Kicks where thrown and arms where swinging in every direction. Both ninja where so quick that their movement became fluid, in a sense it almost looked like they were dancing, both knowing each step coming up next.

The only thing that could be heard were grunts and bone hitting each other.

Sasuke and Naruto both had happy grins on their faces, they were both able to defend each and every blow that the other was sending.

*1 hour later*

Naruto and Sasuke were tired, sweat was dripping everywhere, both of them had bruises and cuts all over their bodies. Naruto has breathing heavily, he felt so sore but it was such a good feeling. Both him and Sasuke didn’t want to surrender, but both seemed like they had enough.

“Sasuke, just give up, you are not going to win this one. I am the best, just admit it.”

“Tch, dobe, I don’t think so, if I were allowed to use anything but taijutsu I would have won ages ago.”

Naruto let out a light chuckle, he let his eyes close for only a second, but once his eyes where open he had Sasuke in front of him, knocking him out to the floor.

As Naruto laid on the floor, Sasuke jumped on top of him, he had his Sharigan activated looking straight into Naruto’s deep blue eyes. He only realized then he was caught in a Genjutsu.

“HEY TEME, THIS IS CHEATING!”

“Tch, I wasn’t going to let you win. Now say I’m the best and I will let you go.”

“You know I could get out of this if I truly wanted to, but I’m not going to waste my energy. Hahaha, so just for today. You win.”

Sasuke let Naruto go, smiled at him and softly punched him on the shoulder. He walked over to some trees and run up to a tree branch and sat down, he looked sad and slightly confused. Naruto wasn’t too sure what might be wrong, but he didn’t know if he should push Sasuke for answers.

Naruto was trying to forget how he felt about Sasuke and to be honest he didn’t want to mention the two kisses that had occurred recently. But he couldn’t just let him sit there alone looking so sad, especially because it was Sasuke.

Naruto got himself off the floor where he was lying. He walked slowly towards Sasuke, as he reached the tree he easily summoned chakra to his feet and climbed upwards.

*The tree*

“Are you okay Sasuke you look down?” Sasuke turned his head towards Naruto, looked at him without saying a single word for a couple minutes. Naruto wasn’t sure what could be going through his head right now, but he knew if he kept looking at him like that he was going to lose his composure really quickly.

“Naruto, can I tell you something?”

Naruto’s heart froze; he was slightly scared about what Sasuke was going to say, was he going to leave again? He couldn’t even start to imagine him leaving Konoha again, the first time had been hard enough.

“Hm, go on.”

Sasuke now was looking out towards the sun which was starting to set, a beautiful view with the calming wind and sound of rustling leaves in his ears. In this moment, after training with Sasuke, Naruto felt at home and so at peace. He loved this feeling, this moment; but he knew it couldn’t last and it saddened him.

“Naruto, I will say this once, and never again.”

Naruto was kicked out his daydreaming and now looked at Sasuke with great concern, Naruto started panicking, realizing Sasuke may actually say his leaving.

“Okay Sasuke, I’m here for you.”

“Well Naruto, I know now, more than ever that I regret so much in my past, I regret not taking action on certain things when I should have. But know I can’t and I’m so lost, because I have been constantly regretting that decision to stay quiet for so long, I don’t know what to do?”

Naruto was so confused, what the hell did Sasuke mean.

“Do you mean when you were younger and left Konoha to gain power?

“No Naruto, I… Uh… Regret not telling you. When we were at the Valley of the end.”

Naruto was even more confused now, what the hell was Sasuke trying to say?

“Tell me what Sasuke?”

Silence filled the air.

“Sasuke, tell me what?”

Sasuke looked at Naruto with water filling his eyes.

“That I loved you.”

Everything blacked out for a minute, Naruto was full of several emotions, everything inside him was going crazy. He felt like his heart was being squeezed because it was pumping so quickly, he wasn’t sure what to do? What to say?

He wanted to try and fix things with Hinata, but he knew what he felt for the man sitting in front of him. He couldn’t tell him he felt the same way, tell him to run away together and leave Konoha, he couldn’t anymore, he was a father and the Hokage.

No, he couldn’t say that. But he did care for Sasuke, he feels so happy around him. But he can’t. He can’t.

Naruto was hyperventilating as he saw Sasuke get up from sitting down next to him. Naruto already missed the warmth of Sasuke’s body next to his.

“Look Naruto, I don’t expect an answer to my confession, I just wanted you to know; I guess… you are the only reason I’m back in Konoha, you are the one who saved me. Not anybody else. It has always been you.”

Sasuke’s voice was now filling with sadness and anger, his fist where clasped so tightly, his knuckles started to whiten.

“You are the only bond I could never cut off and you are the only person I have ever acknowledged. I… needed you. I realized when we nearly died that I saw myself next to you. I always believed you were the only person worth my time. You are the only one who made me believe there was any form of good in this world. Naruto, when you dragged me back here I planned on telling you the truth, but then you got engaged and married and I knew I screwed it all up, that I should have just told you at the Valley of the end.”

Sasuke looked down at Naruto, tears dripping down his pale cheek.

“Naruto, I have always loved you.”

Naruto was so lost for words before he could even get up and punch Sasuke for not telling him sooner, Sasuke was gone. All that was left were puffs of cloud where Sasuke used to be. Naruto started to sob into his hands, unsure what the hell to do now.

 He looked at the setting sun. He was so unsure of himself. He couldn’t believe Sasuke had never told him that. Why did he keep it for so many years? There where so many unanswered questions.

 _-All that could be heard in the forest, was the rustling of leaves and a man sobbing his heart out, all alone._ -


	8. What now?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto and Sasuke both have wives and children in Konoha. One drunken reunion gets a bit out of hand, and Naruto drunkenly accepts to recreate a kiss that happened long ago. This kiss starts a chain reaction, which leads to a confession which has been held for many years.
> 
> -Trying to stay as true to the series, so N/H and S/S are already canon :(. But there will be twist and turns that leads to a different ending.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Don't read it if you don't like the Naru/Sasu pairing.

Naruto woke up in a haze, alcohol blurring his vision, a headache piercing his ear drums. He grumbled out of bed, watching the room move around him. Naruto picked up his annoyingly loud buzzing phone, he looked at the bright screen flickering the Hokage’s tower number repeatedly.

“NARUTO! WHERE ARE YOU?”

Naruto was hit by the loud sound of Kakashi screaming into the phone, he had no idea what had happened last night, everything after walking towards the bar after Sasuke left was a black haze to Naruto.

“Uh Kakashi, um I had a really bad night last night. Kind of got drunk. I’m sorry, is everything okay? I will be there as soon as possible.”

Naruto could hear Kakashi take in a deep breath, he knew he was screwed for Kakashi to be this mad, most of the time he gave literally zero shits.

“Naruto everything is fine, in the sense that there isn’t an emergency, but the team of advisers and the elders are so pissed that you are so late. We tried Hinata but she said she left early in the morning and you were still in bed, she presumed you were working late today. You had the team meeting today remember? The board are furious, I tried to calm them down, but this is out of my hands now. I would advise you to get here as quick as possible.”

Naruto took in a deep breath to steady himself.

“Okay Kakashi be there in 10.”

Naruto hanged up the phone before Kakashi could keep reminding him of how screwed he was. Naruto stood up, feeling the ground slip underneath him. He stumbled and caught himself quickly on a nearby wall. Naruto didn’t have to try very hard to find out the house was completely empty; he couldn’t sense anyone’s chakra around the house.

He didn’t want to think about having to deal with Hinata and the board all in the same day.

“FUCK!”

Naruto slammed his fist into the wall, leaving a large dent in the wall. He needed to control himself. At this point he was glad he had Kurama inside himself, alcohol never affected him too much because he had such quick healing properties, he could already feel his concentration start to focusing and his headache simmering down.

What worried Naruto was the fact that he was this hung over, which means he would have gotten wasted the night before, especially for all of it to be a hazy memory.

He quickly had a heart attack, realizing he may have accidentally confessed something to Sasuke. He didn’t, did he? No… Could he? Naruto picked up his cell phone and without thinking about the repercussions of what he was doing, his phone was already dialing Sasuke’s number.

Within two short rings, Sasuke picked up.

“Hey Naruto, it must be an emergency for you to call me, are you okay? What’s going on?”

Naruto had no idea how to ask if something had happened, without asking it, just in case he didn’t say anything to Sasuke at all.

“Teme, this is odd, but after you left yesterday, did we see each other or talk or anything.”

Naruto could sense how silent the line had become, Sasuke stayed quite for a minute.

“Um, no Naruto. Was there something you were meant to say?”

Naruto knew he was in dangerous grounds right now. He relaxed a little knowing he hadn’t said anything whilst drunk, but he also revealed that he might have wanted to say something to Sasuke about his confession.

“No Sasuke, I uh…actually, had to give you an assignment, could you come into my office tomorrow to pick it up?”

Naruto was trying to think of the most logical thing for why he would have wanted to speak to Sasuke, he knew he sounded awkward over the phone, but it was the best acting he could do, considering how hung over he was.

“Oh, sure.”

Sasuke’s voice sounded deeply saddened, which was weird to hear from Sasuke who usually showed no form of emotion. It stabbed Naruto in the heart to hear the depressing and annoyed tone that his voice carried.

“Thanks, I gotto go. See you then Sasuke.”

Naruto quickly hanged up. He couldn’t do it anymore. Hearing Sasuke’s voice deflate over the fact that Naruto had nothing to say about the confession killed him. He couldn’t act upon anything right now. He had to fix everything else.

Naruto got up and quickly run to the bathroom to wash his face, he messily chucked on his Hokage uniform and run out the door. He summoned some chakra to his feet and surged off the ground towards the Hokage tower, as he reached closer he could see his inevitable doom which awaited him.

 

*The meeting*

Naruto knew exactly what was coming for him, not that it made it any easier. He drew in a deep breath and entered the meeting room which he technically had to be in about an hour and a half ago. As he walked in everyone besides Kakashi who had an expressionless face, were glaring evilly at Naruto.

Glares that literally burnt holes through cement walls. Naruto walked in scratching the back of his head awkwardly, he hurried to take his seat.

“I’m so sorry, I had some personal issues come up. I’m sorry I didn’t send over a messenger or anything.”

Naruto’s failed attempt to apologize was defiantly noted by pretty much the entire room of frustrated and angry Shinobi. One of the elders, stood up. This time, unlike the last time when Naruto stormed out of the room, calmly looked at Naruto and said in a calm tone with an expressionless face to not provoke Naruto to lose his anger again.

“Naruto, would you care to explain why you have made us wait over an hour for your arrival?”

Naruto stood up bowed his head out of respect and looked at all the eyes glaring at him.

“I’m sorry elders and board, this is completely my fault, it shall not be repeated again. I allowed my personal life to intervene. I am deeply sorry.”

The room seemed to relax a little bit, Naruto’s expressions were sincere and honest and the room slightly felt sorry for Naruto.

Kakashi got up from one of the chairs.

“Well Naruto besides you being a mess, let’s move on with the meeting, shall we?”

Naruto nodded and shyly walked back to his seat. He had to get his head back into focus, a Hokage is meant to have their shit together.

*After the meeting*

The room was vibrant, everyone was thoroughly surprised with Naruto’s knowledgeable contribution to the meeting, the elders had respectively said good bye to him and the rest of the board where chatting about the current chunin exams which were coming up.

Naruto had chatted to some of the people but needed to get to his room and start the daily paper work that he was now thoroughly behind in.

Naruto had waved goodbye to the people left chatting in the meeting room, he walked down the hall way and opened his door. He wasn’t surprised to see Kakashi leaning against a wall with a little orange book in hand.

“Kakashi, anything I can do for you?”

Kakashi simply raised an eyebrow, to indicate that Naruto knew exactly what he wanted. Naruto let out a sigh, because he did know why Kakashi was in his room, though he wasn’t planning to tell him anything.

“Kakashi, I don’t have time, I’m already late on my paper work for today, so unless you have something important to say I’m going to presume my work.”

Kakashi lowered his book and walked over to Naruto.

“So, you going to tell me exactly what happened yesterday or am I going to have to force the information out of you?”

Naruto was starting to become slightly aggravated, he didn’t want to deal with this. He had too much shit going on, Kakashi meddling in-between all of it was something Naruto didn’t need right now.

“Look Kakashi, its none of your business, I have enough going on, I don’t have time for your head games.”

Kakashi simply placed the book inside his pocket and refused to move out of Naruto’s way.

“Well you see, I’m quite curious. Because I happened to pass by Sakura’s the other day. To my surprise, I found a very angry and disappointed Hinata. Proclaiming that you never showed up for a date? So, if this isn’t a fight with your wife, then what exactly caused you to be so drunk last night that you couldn’t come to the board meeting tonight?”

Naruto was lost for words, he was screwed at this point he knew Kakashi was going to get the information out of him, at least he was going to make it hard for him to find out.

Naruto aggressively pushed Kakashi out of the way. He took his seat and started to rub his temples out of annoyance of the situation he was in and also because of the annoying man who wouldn’t leave him alone.

“Kakashi it’s none of your business and if you don’t drop it, I will personally see you out of the room.”

The air seemed a bit tense, the electricity of Naruto’s unwillingness to budge and Kakashi’s stubbornness filled the room.

The sharp tension that filled the room could cut someone if they walked in right now. Kakashi moved forward towards the table and heavily banged his palms down.

“Naruto, I know you better than anyone. I know you don’t drink that much unless you have something annoying you. What is it?”

Naruto looked straight into Kakashi’s eyes, refusing to back down.

“And what makes you think I should tell you? I am capable of handling my own shit Kakashi.”

Both men glared at each other, each one not blinking an eye. Neither seemed like they were going to give up. Suddenly a knock was heard at the door and the creak of an opening door distracted both men in their intense glaring competition.

“Uh, do you want me to come back Naruto?”

Naruto was screwed, absolutely fucking screwed. He knew that deep husky, dam hypnotizing voice.

Why Sasuke, of course. Of all people who could have walked in right now, it had to be him. Naruto hadn’t seen Sasuke since his confession and he knew he wouldn’t be able to hide his facial emotions around him anymore.

“Sasuke, no come in, Kakashi is just being annoying.”

Naruto felt his cheeks warm up, he felt like he was being enveloped by those dark mysterious black eyes that where looking straight at him.

“Shikamaru sent me with the list for the Chunin exam, he wants you to check it, sign it off and give it back to him by tomorrow morning.”

Naruto took the paper, and added it in the urgent pile. He turned back to Sasuke, who was looking at Naruto with that same expressionless face. He wished he knew what was going on in his mind right now.

“Thanks, Sasuke how are you feeling today?”

Naruto knew he couldn’t ask him too many questions in front of Kakashi, but he needed to know if Sasuke was okay. After seeing him break down like that, Naruto was worried for him.

“I’m fine, why do you ask?”

Naruto was a bit hurt by the quick and clean cut sentences which were coming out his mouth, the lack of emotion and almost robotic calm tone he used was going to drive him insane.

Well what could he expect, it’s not like yesterday’s encounter was something he should be happy about. The man told him a long-held secret, a confession, which he literally got no reply too.

“Just wondering.”

Sasuke had a flicker of pain in his eyes, but with one short breath it was gone from his face and all that was left where icy cold black eyes.

“Hn, anyways I need to go. See you later Naruto, Kakashi.”

Sasuke bowed and left without turning back to look at Naruto.

 

Naruto at that moment felt like a knife was slowly pushing itself into his heart. Slowly twisting every time he thought about yesterday. He sat down back into his seat, letting out an aggravated sigh.

“So Sasuke, huh? Now that I saw you practically melt down in front of me, are you going to tell me what happened?”

Naruto jumped in his seat, he nearly forgot Kakashi was in the room. He was screwed, there was no way he could play down what had just happened. He was never good with hiding his emotions and today was no exemption.

“Kakashi, its personal.”

Naruto didn’t even turn to look him in the eye, he knew if he did Kakashi would be able to see the pain behind Naruto’s crystal blue eyes.

“Naruto, I have been noting how weird you have been acting lately. And I was trying to figure out why. Now that I know it has to do with Sasuke, I might have to start asking him questions.”

Naruto angrily stood up slamming his fist through the edge of his table.

“KAKASHI, I WILL KILL YOU!”

Kakashi let out a soft chuckle, he started walking towards the window. He began climbing out, stopping midway.

“Good luck trying to explain your little boyfriend situation to Hinata, haha!”

Kakashi sent Naruto a two-finger salute and was gone in a flash. Naruto had to breathe deeply to calm himself.

“Fucker!”

*End of the day*

Naruto finished some paper work, his eyes stinging from focusing on small print all day. He picked up his Hokage cloak and swung it over his shoulders, he knew he had a long night ahead of him as well. Hinata was not going to be an easy hurdle, but it was a hurdle he was going to have to face.

He walked towards his house, waving at the friendly villagers who now loved seeing Naruto. He remembered the old days when he used to be hated walking down these same roads.

Naruto was resentful towards his past, but he knew it built him into the man he was today and for that he was grateful. He saw his house coming up. He let out a few long sighs, brought out his keys and walked in knowing war was ahead.

*The fight*

Naruto walked in to see Hinata in the kitchen, arms folded with the most passive aggressive stare towards Naruto. The kids unknowing of the annoyance between their parents played around in the lounge with practice kunai and shuriken.

“Boruto, Himawari can you please go play upstairs. I think me and your dad need to talk.”

Boruto shoot his dad a huge grin, knowing he was going to get destroyed, Himawari oblivious to what was going on picked up her teddy bear and shuriken and run upstairs to continue playing. As soon as the children were out of sight, Hinata let go of her hands and let out a deep and aggravated sigh.

“Look Hinata…”

“Naruto! Stop. Before you start apologizing for not rocking up like usual. Would you care to explain why the hell you came home drunk last night?”

“Wait you were here? I didn’t see you this morning?”

Hinata took a seat on one of the kitchen chairs.

“Well I came back from Sakura’s after you decided to not rock up to our dinner, but I’m used to you bailing on any plans we ever make. But when I came home last night, you where past out in our bathroom. Thankfully I got the kids to bed without seeing. What were you thinking? Did you bail on me? Bail on spending some good dam time together finally to go get fucking drunk?”

Naruto could feel the anger raise in Hinata’s voice, he knew he had to try and remain calm. He was trying to fix his marriage not make it worse than it already was. But Naruto was already worn thin from such a rough day, he didn’t know if he could keep it together much longer.

“Hinata I know I’m sorry! I didn’t purposely go get drink for no reason!”

Before Naruto could rewind time and take back those words Hinata had already realized something serious had happened yesterday.

“Naruto, what exactly happened? Why did you drink? You better tell me now, oh god help me Naruto!”

Naruto was lost for words, what could he say that would be convincing enough for him to need to drink because he was upset? He obviously couldn’t tell her the truth.

“Hinata, I was just upset because some board meetings haven’t been going well and I am stressed with work and how much time I spend at the office instead of home.”

“So, your solution is to get drunk, instead of actually spending time with us?”

Hinata rolled her eyes out of annoyance, she was increasingly getting frustrated with Naruto’s flimsy answers.

“Hinata I know I fucked up I am sorry.”

Hinata was now fuming, she abruptly stood up from her chair and starting pacing the kitchen.

“Naruto, it’s not the drunk part that really annoys me. It’s the fact that this is constant with you. When are you ever home, when do you ever spend time with me or your kids?”

Naruto was getting shot in the heart with every word Hinata was shooting at him. Because he knew it was all true.

“You know what Naruto; it is no fucking clue Boruto hates you. Because what kind of father is never there for their own child?”

Hinata’s face seemed to drop at what she had just said, she realized what had come out of her mouth due to the overwhelming anger she was feeling.

“Naruto, I’m sor…”

“Stop Hinata, I clearly see how you feel. Well if you think I’m so shit and I’m not fucking trying my best then you know exactly what to do. Divorce papers aren’t that fucking hard to write.”

With that statement Naruto was out of his house slamming the door shut, he couldn’t deal with any of this. He had enough. He started hastily walking away, as he heard the door to his own house open.

“NARUTO! COME BACK! IM SORRY!”

Naruto couldn’t even turn back at this point, his ear drums where thrumming so loudly, his head was spinning and his eyes where burning from the water which started to form around the corners.

Naruto walked towards the ninja academy, he had to be alone tonight, he couldn’t think straight. He wanted to let go of so much pain that he was holding onto.

*The swing*

He sat down on the swing outside the academy, he seemed to be able to think when he sat here. He rocked back and forth letting his feet skim the ground as he swung forwards and then backwards.

At this stage, Naruto didn’t even try to fight back the tears he just let them come now. He has had a few down moments in his life but this one was certainly the cherry on top of the cake.

He remembered only ever feeling this shit and hopeless the day Sasuke left the village and the day he found out Konoha had approved Sasuke’s death.

He seemed to be a worthless Hokage, how could he run this village if he couldn’t even run his own dam life? Everything had to be a wreck, didn’t it?

His head was pulsing loudly, each pulse sending a rippling wave of pain down Naruto’s body. He pressed his hands hard on his head, slowly lowering his heads to his knees. Trying to block out the pain, trying to block out the fact that he was useless; useless as a friend, useless as a father, useless as a husband and pretty much useless as Hokage.

He felt himself drowning in darkness, he needed to breathe, needed to calm down.

He told himself to concentrate on his breathing, breathe in, breathe out.

Nothing was working the pain kept coming, every time in stronger waves, he felt like his body was shaking profusely. Nothing could stop the feeling that he was failing at everything. All he could hear in his head was “failure” repeating itself over and over again. He wanted it to stop. But the voices just became louder and louder.

The pain was getting harder to ignore, as much as Naruto curled himself into a ball, nothing could stop the rippling feeling of worthlessness that was overtaking his body.

Suddenly Naruto could feel a comforting hand on his shoulder, all the noises had stopped and the pain was slowly disappearing. He could breathe again. He looked up to see who had saved him. Sasuke was looking down at Naruto beautiful caring eyes with a worried look on his face.

The moon was directly behind him and Naruto could have sworn at first it was an angel he was looking at. The moon created a halo effect around Sasuke, highlighting his upper body and porcelain skin.

“Naruto, are you alright?”

Naruto hadn’t moved yet from his fetal position on the swing, but he felt like he had a sudden surge of energy. Before he could stop himself and even if he could stop himself at this point he properly would have just allow himself to act on his feelings; he allowed himself to move forward and take Sasuke into a tight embrace.

“Sasuke, I.. I..”

“Shh, dobe, it’s alright, I’m here.”

Naruto tightened his grip on Sasuke and could feel Sasuke relax his body and hug Naruto back. It felt so warm and right, all the pain, all the worry that Naruto was feeling started to vanish. As if Sasuke were some form of shield to all of his pain.

Naruto started crying heavily on Sasuke’s shoulders, neither man moved from the tight embrace.

_-The moon shone brightly on a heart-warming moment, that unfortunately wasn’t going to last. -_


	9. Healing the unfixable

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto and Sasuke both have wives and children in Konoha. One drunken reunion gets a bit out of hand, and Naruto drunkenly accepts to recreate a kiss that happened long ago. This kiss starts a chain reaction, which leads to a confession which has been held for many years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Don't read it if you don't like the Naru/Sasu pairing.

Naruto and Sasuke stood in the middle of the academy grounds, hugging tightly underneath the sparkling moon. Naruto was slowly rubbing his tears away, gripping tightly onto Sasuke’s black jumper with his other hand. He knew this moment was not going to last, once he let go he would be sent spiralling back down to reality.

Sasuke moved back from their intimate hug to look into Naruto’s tear filled eyes.

“Naruto, are you okay? What’s going on?”

Naruto swallowed down a pile of hot pain he felt in his throat, as he did so he felt his vision blur once again from the continuous tears which fled away from his eyes. He knew he needed to control himself, calm down and take a step back from Sasuke.

He walked towards his swing, grasping onto the worn-out rope. He used it to balance his wobbly and unstable body, clinging tightly onto the torn-out rope as if it were some sort of life line. He didn’t want to turn back and look Sasuke in the eye. He couldn’t.

How could he tell him anything that was going on? It would be terrible news for him, ‘oh so I like you, but we could never be together because I don’t want to tear my family apart, but I feel nothing towards my wife and everything is turning into a pile of shit.’

Nope, he definitely was not going to say that to him.

Naruto’s thoughts were interrupted when he heard Sasuke start to walk towards him, his body suddenly stiffened in anticipation.

He didn’t know how to tell Sasuke that he could only be platonic? This was killing him because he knew he was falling so hard for the man who was currently a foot away.

Naruto could feel Sasuke’s body warmth brush against his. Every hair in his body jumped up in response, reaching for that warmth.

He was confused when he felt that heat drift away, he quickly turned to see where Sasuke went.

A quick look around and he spotted the black-haired beauty.

“Naruto, come sit with me.”

Naruto knew he should keep his distance, act platonically. But any form of conscious decisions were chucked out of his mind ages ago. He stepped forward to were Sasuke was sitting on a patch of grass. He took a seat next to him, making sure there was enough distance between them.

Naruto turned his gaze to Sasuke who was looking up towards the twinklingly sky, radiating elegance and beauty underneath the moon light.

Naruto had known Sasuke was extremely handsome since they were young, he had the entire academy gushing over him. But Naruto never knew the pure beauty and angelic nature to Sasuke’s facial features, until that very moment.

*The talk*

Sasuke started to open his mouth, as if to say something. But he quickly shut his mouth. He then looked at Naruto with a confused and shy look in his eye.

“Look Naruto, I’m here to listen, I’m not excellent with advice but I can at least listen.”

Naruto was relaxing into his position on the grass, he knew Sasuke was trying to help, but Naruto couldn’t tell him.

“Look Sasuke, I really do appreciate you trying to help, but I don’t think you can help me out right now.”

Sasuke looked into Naruto’s eyes with a hint of anger lurking within them.

“Naruto, why can’t I help you!?”

Sasuke’s voice was raising in slight announce, Naruto could feel him trying to restrain himself from not quickly losing his temper.

Naruto started to look around the dark scenery, trying to avoid any form of eye contact with Sasuke.

“Sasuke, I… I really can’t tell you. It’s very personal. And it’s just something I can’t share with you.”

Sasuke’s let out an aggravated sigh.

“Naruto, if this has anything to do with my dam confession, I told you to not think about it. If you are worried that you are going to hurt my feelings by saying you feel nothing towards me, I will be fine.”

Naruto was apprehended by what Sasuke was saying to him. He knew he could lie to Sasuke right now and tell him he felt nothing towards him, but thinking of doing that made Naruto feel strange because he knew it was all a lie.

He didn’t know why it made him uncomfortable thinking of lying to Sasuke, but for some reason it just did.

“Sasuke, it doesn’t have anything to do with you.”

Sasuke moved around so that Naruto could no longer avoid eye contact with him.

“Naruto if it has nothing to do with me, then why can’t you tell me?”

Naruto started to tear up, he felt like opening up to Sasuke and letting go of an enormous amount of pressure that was building up on his shoulders.

“Sasuke… I just can’t.”

Sasuke didn’t look anywhere else but straight at Naruto, sheer dedication on his face. But Naruto was trying to look anywhere but the man sitting directly in front of him.

“Naruto, look at me.”

Naruto didn’t want to look at Sasuke, but he felt like it would just be rude to ignore his request. As he met dark glistening eyes, he felt his heart jump and butterflies leave his stomach. He wished at that very moment he could make everything right in his world and just lean in and kiss him. But this wasn’t dream world, it was hard cruel reality and he knew he couldn’t do anything his heart was actually desiring at that very moment.

“Sasuke, please.”

Naruto could feel his eyes swell up with tears that he so desperately was trying to bite back. Sasuke raised his hand and placed it lovingly on Naruto’s shoulders.

“Naruto, no matter what you are about to tell me, I won’t judge you, nor will I be sad if it’s about me.”

Naruto looked at the man who was so badly trying to comfort him. He questioned if he could tell him the truth. Naruto was urgently trying to create a fake story in his mind, any possible scenario for why he might be alone crying on a swing at midnight.

“Sasuke, I just got into massive trouble with the board and Hinata and I had a fight, that’s basically it.”

Naruto tried his hardiest to grin and act like everything was going to be okay.

“You are lying Naruto! Tell me the truth!”

Naruto couldn’t do this anymore.

He quickly stood up from the ground, starting to forcibly walk away from Sasuke, who now was also standing up.

“Sasuke, it is the truth, Ille be fine, go to Sakura, I bet she is missing you.”

“Hmph, Naruto I don’t know if you have had your head in your ass, but me and Sakura aren’t together, we haven’t been for a while.”

Naruto looked back at Sasuke with a concerned face.

“Wait what! Why didn’t you guys say anything?”

Sasuke started to walk to Naruto, but Naruto backed away with every step Sasuke took towards him.

“Naruto, we decided to keep it quiet for Sarada’s sake, we kind of fell apart… when I realised women aren’t really my thing.”

Naruto felt like he was getting slapped in the face with what Sasuke was telling him.

“Wait, your gay?”

Naruto’s heart was becoming flustered by the thought of how much more the confession now meant.

 “Hm.”

Sasuke now was looking out towards the dark trees in the corner.

“But Naruto, this conversation isn’t about my sexual orientation, it’s about you. Why where you out here crying your eyes out? And don’t give me that load of shit you just said earlier.”

Naruto was quickly reminded by the conversion that was actually important here, but his mind kept getting distracted by the thought that Sasuke was gay.

“Uhh, Sasuke, please don’t worry.”

Naruto was trying to get Sasuke to drop the topic. He knew he had strong feelings for him, but he really couldn’t tell him, he couldn’t hurt him. Naruto refused to be the one to hurt Sasuke, if he didn’t know then that would save him a lot of pain.

Naruto started to tear up again, as he looked at Sasuke who was standing directly underneath the moonlight, shining like a beacon of perfection.

“Sasuke, what I said was true, most of it...”

With that sentence, Naruto focused his chakra and disappeared, leaving a puff of clouds behind.

Naruto looked at Sasuke through a thick cover of tree leaves, Sasuke was looking everywhere, starting to hastily pace in different directions to look around.

“Naruto! I swear to god! I know you are there, can you just act like an adult and tell me. I’m here to help you, not play fucking chasey.”

Naruto was trying not to make a sound, but he also needed to get out of there before Sasuke could find him. With that thought he tried to look around for his quickest escape route.

Before Naruto could run away he felt a shiver run directly down his spine, he saw bright red eyes glaring straight at him from the ground. He knew he was in trouble, if Sasuke was playing nice before to find out what was going on, he defiantly was not going to be playing nice now.

Naruto pushed off the tree branch and speed through the trees, trying to distract Sasuke who was only a couple meters away from him. He sent some clones to distract him and transformed into a log a couple of times, trying everything to lose him.

After 20 minutes of running and distracting he could no longer sense Sasuke’s chakra. He might have actually lost him. With that thought, Naruto started to remember everything that had just occurred. He couldn’t imagine watching Sasuke be hurt by the words, ‘I love you but I can’t be with you’.

Naruto’s heart started to clench in pain at the thought of sadness lingering in Sasuke’s eyes whilst he got rejected by Naruto.

Naruto realized he was reaching his training grounds, with a quick push off the branch he swopped down neatly onto the grounds. Sasuke was nowhere in sight and so Naruto decided it was safe to finally let go of all his pent-up pain and frustration.

He felt a surge of anger, hate, sadness and fear all build up. He walked towards the middle of the training grounds feeling a surge of power building inside himself, soon enough his body was glowing orange chakra. He punched directly into the ground, leaving an enormous hole the size of a small pond.

He cried out and let out a few frustrated puffs of air. He just couldn’t hold it in any longer.

 

“I FUCKIN LOVE YOU, THAT’S WHY I CAN’T TELL YOU! I DON’T WANT TO HURT YOU! FOR FUCK SAKE!”

Naruto, felt like giant weights were lifted off his shoulders, it felt so good to say it out loud. It was killing him to not shout it straight to Sasuke’s stupid, stubborn face.

He stayed in his kneeling position for a while longer, letting go of any anger that remained in his body. His hand was still firmly placed on the dirt that he just punched through. He decided it was time to open his eyes, walk home and pretend like everything was fine. As he opened his eyes, he found two red eyes staring straight at him.

Sasuke looked like he was just punched in the face, or that he just found out some pretty drastic news. It properly was the latter half. FUCK, FUCK, FUCK.

Naruto got up quickly.

“Sasuke, I thought I lost you. Please tell me you didn’t just hear that?”

“Oh, I heard.”

Sasuke looked like he was about to pass out, or have a heart attack.

“Sasuke, I’m sorry. This is exactly why I didn’t want to tell you. If you had just dropped it.”

Sasuke had quickly turned from being shocked to being angry and Naruto could have sworn he saw steam bursting out of his ears.

Sasuke got up and walked directly to Naruto. Naruto’s whole body became solid; he was cemented in place. What was he meant to do? His heart was thrumming so loudly and he felt like his blood was warming up just at the thought that Sasuke was walking towards him.

Sasuke was now only a few inches away from Naruto, he raised a hand and Naruto could have sworn that he was kneeling into Naruto, but what hit him, weren’t lips put a fist.

Naruto landed straight onto the floor, pain piercing his face. He could feel his cheek swell up with a warm burning sensation.

“What was that for?”

Sasuke looked straight at Naruto and then went to pick him up from the collar, he quickly pushed Naruto to a nearby tree, eyes shining dangerously red. Naruto was lost in all the commotion, he didn’t know which way he was being flung. The fact that Sasuke had him in a genjustu did not help as well. He could barely control his body, all he could move were his eyes.

Naruto was looking straight at Sasuke with questioning eyes which were screaming to tell him what the hell was going on.

Sasuke’s eyes tuned back into a deep black and Naruto could feel his body jump back to life. As Naruto began to struggle, he could feel Sasuke’s warm pink lips press fiercely onto his. Naruto realised in that blissful moment, that there was absolutely no denying the way he felt towards this man. He was completely intoxicated with him. Why he never realised sooner he would never guess.

In this strong and warm kiss, both Naruto and Sasuke lost themselves. Only regaining consciences to the real world after 5 minutes.

Naruto moved back from the kiss, apprehended and guilt ridden.

“Fuck Sasuke, Look… Sasuke… I.”

“Sh, dobe. I know.”

Naruto’s eyes meet Sasuke’s Black eyes that lingered in pain, but didn’t dare look away from ocean blue eyes which stared back in shock.

“You know?”

“Of course, dobe you have a family. I never expected you to ever like me back. But I know that we can never be together.”

Sasuke’s eyes looked like they were about to water, but Sasuke quickly looked away into the pitch blackness that surrounding them.

Naruto felt like walking forward and telling him no that’s not true, telling him everything will be alright. Pull him into another long kiss and start something he knew they both so desperately wanted. But the world isn’t so nice, and life doesn’t work so smoothly.

Naruto swallowed a harsh gulp, which felt like a rock going down his throat. His eyes where red and swollen from the amount of crying he had done throughout the day. His heart was aching and his whole body was trembling.

“Sasuke, I don’t want to hurt you. I really don’t. But you are correct, I have a family, which right now is my main focus.”

“I know Naruto, I have known for a long time. Even when I thought I had a 1 % chance with you, I knew it would never work. And I’m okay with that, I came to terms with that many years ago.”

Naruto was realising Sasuke was talking past tense and it hit him, Sasuke has been in love with him for a very long time. He thought for just a moment, what if?

What if Sasuke told him sooner, would they be together right now? Would he be happier? Naruto’s mind flicked through memories with his children and he knew the answer was no but also yes, which made no sense. He couldn’t imagine a life without his children, but it also made him quite happy thinking about having a life with Sasuke.

He knew he couldn’t have both. Could he? Properly not.

“Sasuke, I…”

Naruto struggled to think about what he was going to say. He wanted to tell him so badly, that all he wanted was him. He wanted to tell him he can’t handle not feeling anything towards his own wife, but how was he expected to tear his family apart?

“I, don’t know what I’m doing.”

Naruto looked up to Sasuke with questioning eyes, as if Sasuke held all the answers in his dark gaze. But alas Naruto found non, he let out an aggravated sigh. Why couldn’t this be simple, why does everything in his life have to be so god dam difficult.

“Naruto, listen. I don’t want you to jeopardize anything, if your family is what matters, then don’t even think about me. I have been fine on my own for a long time.”

Naruto found slight comfort in Sasuke’s words, but something in his gut was telling him what Sasuke was saying was not completely true.

“Sasuke, there are a lot of issues in my life. I won’t tell you the details, because this is my burden not yours. I want so many things, but most of it is out of my reach.” “

What are these things that you want Naruto?”

Naruto knew the answer was standing right in front of him, dressed in deep black, standing elegantly against the dark forest scenery.

“I want happiness Sasuke, something I feel like I have somehow forgotten about.”

Naruto knew this statement was completely true, but only recently did he realized how much Sasuke played a part to his happiness.

“What makes you happy Naruto? Solve that and you solve the problem.”

Naruto looked down at his dirty orange and black jumper. Grasping the edges so that his mind could be distracted in some way or another.

“It’s not that simple Sasuke, you don’t think if it was, I would have done it already?”

Sasuke was taking a few slow steps towards Naruto, each stride felt like a thousand heart beats in Naruto’s mind.

“Sasuke, I know this is stupid but, it’s really complicated, that’s all there is to it.”

Sasuke was now only a few inches away from Naruto, sheer determination in his body to help his friend/crush in anyway.

“Tell me Naruto, whatever it is I’m here. Even if what makes you happy is trying to fix your family then that’s exactly what Ille help you do.”

Naruto could sense the slight hesitation Sasuke had whilst saying that and it melted Naruto’s heart that he would push his feelings aside to make Naruto happy.

“So, what makes you happy Naruto?”

Naruto’s ocean blue eyes looked straight into crimson black eyes, not looking anywhere else.

“You.”

This time Naruto leaned in, not hesitating to stop. He brought Sasuke into a deep long and passionate kiss. Both boys lost in the intimate paradise of each other’s soft lips.

Naruto’s eyes started to tear and Sasuke pulled back to wipe it away.

“But your family is still more important? Isn’t it Naruto?”

Naruto didn’t want this to be the end of paradise, but the words about to leave his mouth, would definitely shatter any false illusion of happiness.

“Yes, Sasuke. There are, and that’s why I don’t think happiness is something I can.”

“Hm.”


	10. So, this is it?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto and Sasuke both have wives and children in Konoha. One drunken reunion gets a bit out of hand, and Naruto drunkenly accepts to recreate a kiss that happened long ago. This kiss starts a chain reaction, which leads to a confession which has been held for many years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Don't read it if you don't like the Naru/Sasu pairing.

-3 months later-

Naruto looked at a man who was slowly falling apart.

Sasuke had always been one to conceal his feelings, but even he couldn’t hide the pain that had built up over the last couple months.

Since their last kiss by the training grounds, in the darkness of a cold night, Sasuke had agreed to help Naruto with his family as much as possible. But it was obvious that helping Naruto was taking its toll on Sasuke, it was as clear as day light how much pain it caused Sasuke to talk with Naruto about ways to fix his relationship with his wife.

Naruto was unsure what to do, he didn’t want Sasuke to stop helping him, mostly because he actually liked his advice, but then again it was wrong of him to keep stabbing Sasuke in the heart. Things with Hinata had not gotten any better, he took her out a couple times. They shared a few kisses and cuddles in the candle light, but nothing seemed right.

There was no spark left, he felt uncomfortable with her laying in his arms and kissing her felt emotionless for him.

He wasn’t really sure what Hinata was feeling, she barely showed any signs of joy. Maybe she felt nothing as well? Naruto wondered if Hinata also felt dead inside when she was around him? Is this why she never really started anything? Or never acted overly lovely dovey anymore?

“Naruto?” 

Naruto’s train of thought was suddenly interrupted by a deep, smooth voice. A voice which belonged to the only man who could make him feel like electricity was running through his veins solely by stating his name.

“Sasuke, I’m sorry I was day dreaming, what can I do for you?”

Naruto hated acting like nothing had happened between them. He was never ready to let go of that tiny glimpse of perfection that was Sasuke, but alas reality was something he had to face.

“Naruto, can you look at these please? It’s for the ANBU enrolment next year, we need to set up next year’s teams and everything else ANBU related.”

Naruto looked up at Sasuke with wide gleaming eyes, “we?”

“Well, you can do it alone if you really want.”

Sasuke’s cheeks had a slight pink tone, but in less than a few seconds his stone face was plastered back on.

“Well I don’t want to trouble you, that’s all.”

Naruto regretted saying that. When does spending time with Sasuke ever sound like a bad idea?

“Hn, well my next mission with my team isn’t till next week, so I’m free.”

Naruto was at war with himself, half of him wanted to say yes, stay. The other half, the correct half, knew he needed to say no. One week working together, late nights, alone is not going to be good for either of them.

“Yes, stay and work with me this week, we can get it done twice as fast.”

Naruto internally was screaming at himself, though externally his smile reached the corners of his cheeks and his heart started beating quicker.

“Okay then, see you tomorrow.”

Sasuke had a cute little smirk on his face as he quickly walked out of Naruto’s office before Naruto could see the baby pink blush forming on his cheeks.

Naruto was screwed, why would he say yes? He should have said no, out of respect to Sasuke’s feelings. But man, just thinking about a whole week of late nights with Sasuke had his whole body excited beyond belief. Suddenly he felt like a teenager all over again, getting excited over being in the same room with his crush.

He couldn’t start to fathom how much he ached to be alone with Sasuke. Every time Naruto looked into Sasuke’s black eyes he saw himself, but only happier, smiling, joyful and full of life.

But every time he looked into Hinata’s, it was like watching himself slowly falling apart from disappointment, frustration and annoyance. Naruto contemplated how much more he could take, he could slowly feel himself cracking. The only thing maintaining those fractured pieces were his children, if not for them he would have gave up the relationship a long time ago.

Naruto finished up his daily paper work, he was dreading the lonely walk back home, the mundane chat with Hinata that would follow and the same routine of not talking to each other whilst they read in bed.

 Naruto was unsure on how marriage was meant to be, he never had examples. But he sure was trying like hell to make this work, everything at this stage had been used; surprise gifts, random dates, movies and flowers. Nothing seemed to spark the light in Hinata’s eyes and Naruto’s spark had long disappeared.

He walked the streets, waving at the shops keepers, attempting to think of new ways to possibly ignite the spark.

Something caught his eye, a tiny flicker of silver, he looked around to see where it came from. Then it caught his eyes again, he spotted it out of the corner of his eye.

A pair of good luck charm bells, tied by red silk ribbon. Naruto thought they needed luck, so he bought both of them and was content with his purchase. He looked down at the two silver bells and he thought that they must be the answer to his prayers.

To be honest, he would try anything at this point to make them work out. He saw his door and for the first time he had a tingle of hope that these bells would be the answer.

He knocked on the door, excited to give Hinata the bells, ready to but all his hope in the hands of fate. Hinata opened the door with tired eyes that seemed they hadn’t had an ounce of sleep.

“Hinata, look I got us these, aren’t they nice? One for you, one for me.”

Naruto’s smile for the first time wasn’t fake, it was genuine. He truly had some faith in these silver bells.

“Oh, thanks Naruto, they are cute. Did Ino get back to you about her training with her chunin? She came by and wanted to know if you got her message?”

Naruto’s face dropped, he wasn’t even sure why he tried anymore, it was things like this that killed his spirit; time and time again. She didn’t even care about the gifts, she basically tossed it aside like everything else.

“Yes, I did. I’m going to have a shower. Long day.”

“Okay, I’m taking the kids to Sakura’s okay?”

“Fine, have fun. Oh. Hinata, from tomorrow onwards I’m going to be very busy at work.”

“Like always.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing, it’s just normal. Anyways continue.”

Naruto tried to calm himself, he was trying to breathe in at a rational pace, trying so very hard to relax himself so he didn’t snap.

“Well anyways, I have ANBU selections for the entire week, so I won’t be home very much for the week.”

Hinata looked up like she wanted to speak, her mouth half open. But in a second she shut it, and bushed it off.

“Alright, good luck.”

“Hinata, I’m going to spend some time with the kids before you go. Because I won’t see them a lot for the next week. Can you wait a bit?”

“Sure, I will make myself a coffee then.”

Naruto walked up the stairs, he felt like each step took extra effort. For some reason everything felt off, like this was the last time he would walk up these stairs as the man he is today. Something in him knew the end of this pain was near, but with the end of this unhappiness came another wave of unpleasantness.

He finally reached the top of the stairs, after what felt like 20 minutes. He entered the game room, and then saw his children.

He felt all his pain disappear. Everything in his world would be alright, no matter how much it crumbles, he will hold on tight, to what he never had; a family.

The 30 minutes with his children went so fast, he got so lost in the blur of being a pony for Himawari and trying to win at a fist fight with Boruto. Before Naruto knew it Hinata was taking them away to Sakura’s.

Even though he knew he was going to see them in a week, his heart starting breaking. He knew that this was how it would be if him and Hinata got divorced. Was he ready to start this new life, with different pains, different complications?

Naruto knew the answer, but was not ready to admit it to himself just yet, he was delusional with the fear of loss, the fear of giving up, the fear of loneliness.

Naruto stepped into the shower, hoping the water would clean away his thoughts. Naruto turned up the heat and watched the shower start accumulating with steam. His thoughts were blurred by his desire to not let go of his family; to not be the reason it breaks.

Naruto grasped the bathroom handles, gripping till his knuckles where white. He didn’t want this, he just wanted to be happy. But he knew he wasn’t happy and hasn’t been for years. But his kids, he didn’t want to lose them.

Naruto started to become agitated, he began pacing inside the shower, circling himself in built up anger. Finally, he let it out and screamed for what felt like 5 minutes. After he exhausted himself, he stood there panting.

Naruto looked into the fogged glass of the bathroom, he drew an N and then traced a love heart on the steamed glass. Finally, he finished his drawing by placing an S right underneath the heart. Naruto snickered, he clearly knew where his heart laid and he clearly knew who made him happy.

But he could never have him. Naruto took a step back and lent against the drenched wall, he looked towards the glass that now had a glowing N & S written across it. He laughed to himself, until the laughter turned into small tears.

Naruto felt null of any form of emotion, he could no longer be okay with the way things were.

He didn’t even realise it, but before he knew it, his fist had punched straight through the N & S and glass had spread everywhere.

Naruto wasn’t scared to cut himself from the glass, he knew he would heal quickly, though he was a bit afraid of what Hinata would think of their shower missing a glass door. Naruto turned off the water and quickly placed a towel over his waist. He walked over the glass, feeling pinches of sharp pain from the bottom of his feet.

He quickly made two clones to clean up the glass and went to write Hinata a note, saying he fell over and broke the glass screen. He hoped she wouldn’t ask to many questions, by the time she arrived he would be asleep anyways and the glass would be gone.

He made sure all the glass was gone before he realised how tired he was. Tired from everything in his life. Tired from pretending everything with Hinata was okay, tired of placing a fake smile in his own home, tired of never being able to tell Sasuke exactly how much he had fallen for him, tired of the constant stress placed upon him at work and finally tired of thinking about everyone else’s happiness but his own.

He opened his bedroom door, slammed the door hard behind him and crawled into bed. He didn’t want to think.

He crawled into a ball and let sleep take him.

-Morning-

The morning was rough, it was 4 am and the birds were chirping, Naruto felt like he only had 2 hours of sleep. He looked over to Hinata, who was resting peacefully on her side. Naruto breathed in deeply, he was so disappointed in himself, how could he be the one to break his own family?

Hinata, looked so displaced in his bed and only then did it hit Naruto, she had always felt wrong next to him.  A weird feeling, indescribable. Just not right. Like two puzzle pieces that where never meant to join. Naruto wanted to be the right puzzle piece, he wanted to be everything for this family. But he realized recently he never treated Hinata with the love a husband should, he had no time to spend with his children and on top of all that he wasn’t even happy.

Naruto got out of bed, he needed to leave, he had to meet Sasuke at 4.30 to start the intense process of ANBU selections. He rubbed his eyes and groaned. This was going to be a long week.

*ANBU selection week*

The week was draining on Naruto, each night worse than the one before. He was mentally exhausted from the amount of paper work he was doing, he was running on such little sleep and he was tired of fighting with himself to not just fucking tell Sasuke how he felt.

He was beyond exhausted.

It was reaching the end of the week and even though this week has been hell, he was glad Sasuke was there to make it better. Sasuke actually tried to calm Naruto down and brought him coffees and ramen.

Naruto knew Sasuke didn’t have much of a sensitive bone in his body, the stuck-up son of a bitch wouldn’t know what kindness was if it hit him in the face. But Naruto realized that Sasuke was very different with him compared to anyone else. He wasn’t sure if he should be happy he gets special treatment, or be worried that he treats everyone else in the village like an ass.

*Last day of ANBU selections*

Naruto rolled out of bed at 4 am again, another night with only 4 hours of sleep, he used to be able to handle minimal sleep when he was younger. But apparently age just makes you wearier.

He quickly got changed, quietly made a coffee and raced off to his final day. Today the ANBU selections came out, which meant he could sleep for 30 hours after this. The selections where not due till midnight, so he still had a long day ahead of him.

He got to his office door only to see Sasuke already leaning against the door, he didn’t know how the man got up so early in the morning and managed to look this good?

“Good morning Sasuke, good sleep?”

“Hm, good enough, you?”

“Does I feel like shit give you an answer?”

“Hm, yer.”

Naruto could notice the slight twitch in Sasuke’s lips, it was quite funny that Sasuke was becoming easier to read. Naruto wasn’t sure if that was due to him being stalker observant, or because Sasuke’s shields were no longer completely up around Naruto.

It bugged Naruto that they weren’t completely down, but he couldn’t really push Sasuke, he probably was also putting boundaries between them. Which Naruto unwillingly understood.

“Alright Sasuke, we have until midnight, let’s do this!”

The clock seemed like it was going 3 times its normal speed, everything was blurred and quick. By the time the clock stroke midnight Sasuke and Naruto where able to hand over a very thick pile of information to Shikamaru. Naruto could tell when Shikamaru walked in, he was surprised to see Sasuke so involved with something Hokage related. But he didn’t say anything, which Naruto appreciated because he didn’t have the energy to argue with Shikamura about why Sasuke was there.

After Shikamaru left, Naruto realised something horrific, he would have to go back home, to Hinata, to fake happiness. He turned to see Sasuke looking out the window with baggy tired eyes. He knew Sasuke left in two days to go on a week-long mission. After seeing him every day, he felt like a piece of him was being ripped away, he questioned why the hell he assigned him the mission in the first place.

But Sasuke was never his to begin with and with that thought Naruto let out a deep sigh.

“Everything okay Naruto, you look like shit?”

Naruto put on a fake smile and rubbed the back of his hair.

“Huh, when do I not look like shit these days?”

Naruto didn’t want to go home, not to his fake ass life, not to waking up on the weekend to start another day of pretend husband. He knew the kids wouldn’t be awake till late because they slept in on the weekends.

Naruto decided, “fuck it, I’m going to sleep here.” \

Naruto realised he wasn’t meant to say that out loud.

Sasuke turned around, now concern starting to surface his face, “is everything okay at home?”

Naruto fucking hated all of this lying and pretending.

“Oh yer, I’m just so tired. And there’s a bed here. Hinata will manage without me coming home for one day.”

“Hn.”

Sasuke didn’t look overly convinced.

Naruto took out his phone and quickly left Hinata a message on her phone that he was sleeping at the office and to not expect him home till noon. With the message sent he placed his phone into his pocket.

Naruto was surprised he wasn’t as tired as he thought he would be, but he assumed it had to do with the excitement of finally finishing selections. He realised Sasuke was still in his office, he assumed he would go straight home.

Naruto could feel his heart start to race. Why wasn’t he leaving?

Sasuke stared at Naruto for a few seconds, admiring the tired man. Naruto felt strange, like everything inside him was set on fire. He didn’t even remember this feeling. It had been so long since he felt this towards a person. Was this lust?

“Sasuke, uhh. Aren’t you going home?” 

“Well I was thinking, we finished selections, if you’re not so tired want to celebrate?”

Naruto laughed, he didn’t know if Sasuke was being sarcastic. But when he looked at Sasuke he had seriousness written all over his face.

“Are you serious?”

“Of course.”

“What do you have in mind?”

Sasuke now looked out towards the village from the window. Naruto realised he was clenching his hands into a tight fist position. Was Sasuke nervous?

“Do you want to go to a bar? I haven’t had alcohol in a while and after this week I could use it.”

Naruto knew he had to say no, there was no way alcohol was going to be a good idea. Naruto wasn’t sure if Sasuke felt the same as before, but he certainly knew he had fallen much harder for him since there talk in the forest. He knew he wouldn’t be able to control himself if he was drunk.

“Huh, sure.”

Naruto hated himself and his lack of self-control.

*Bar*

-12. 20 am- midnight-

Naruto and Sasuke walked into a rather lively bar. Naruto seemed to forget that people actually got out of their houses on Friday nights to enjoy life. Something he was gravely envious of. The bar tender saw Naruto and waved excitedly.

“Good afternoon Hokage and Sasuke, would you like your usual private room? Naruto looked at Sasuke who had a slight pink tinge on his cheeks.

“Uh, Sasuke?”

“Whatever, I am easy.”

Naruto, knew this was bad idea, but he hated when people in the village saw him drunk. He did have a reputation to uphold.

“We will take my private. Thank you.”

Naruto tried very hard to convince himself that this was for his reputation and no other reason.

 

He turned around and noticed that Sasuke had now formed an obvious blush on his cheeks, which Naruto could tell he was trying very hard to bite back.

He chuckled a little bit. Dam he was cute.

“What you laughing about?”

“Oh nothing.”

“Tch.”

Naruto and Sasuke walked into their private room and sat opposite to each other.

“What will your first orders be?”

Naruto knew he needed something strong, the weight of everything in his life needed to be drowned away with strong liquor. He thought with Sasuke a whole table away, he should be safe from making a fool of himself.

“Ille have the house bottle of wine and also can you please bring me 3 glasses of your strongest rum, on the rocks.”

Sasuke looked at Naruto with wide eyes of disbelief from the amount of alcohol he just ordered.

“What? It’s been a long week. Okay?”

“Hey, I didn’t say anything, but I can’t let you drink me under the table, so can I also get the same as Naruto?”

“Absolutely! I shall be in shortly with your orders.”

Naruto heard the door close behind the bar tender, finally the heaviness of Sasuke sitting with him alone in a private room to do something other than talk about work was settling in.

Naruto had lost his ability to function and apparently also lost his ability to speak words. There was a long 2-minute silence that awkwardly filled the room. Both boys fiddled with their napkins looking anywhere but at each other.

Finally, Sasuke broke the silence, “so how are things with Hinata, you haven’t come to me for advice in a while. Are things better? Are you finally happy?”

Naruto died internally, of course the first thing they had to start the conversation with, was his horrible relationship. Naruto knew he was going to need more alcohol than what he ordered and already planned out the next 10 drinks in his head.

“Uh yer…”

Naruto didn’t even know how to answer, should he lie say its fine, thanks for all your help. Or I hate it, kill me, stab me in the heart?

“Naruto, do you not want to talk about it?”

Naruto relaxed at that question.

“Yer.”

Sasuke had a concerned face, but soon replaced it with a smile, Naruto started to melt. He rarely saw Sasuke smile, but he would die and resurrect just to see it one more time. He truly was beautiful.

“That’s okay, what about we talk about my mission next week, I had a few questions?”

Naruto laughed, it sure was typical of Sasuke to turn things around by bringing up work, at least this conversation he could have.

-12.30 midnight. -

The bar tender walked into the room whilst Naruto and Sasuke were still talking about his mission, she carried trays full of alcohol.

“Alright, here we go, these are for Sasuke and these are for you Naruto, if you need anything else, just press the buzzer.”

“Thank you very much.”

Naruto kindly waved the bar tender good bye as she left.

“Haha, they must think we are having some important meeting, if they are making us use the buzzer for next rounds.”

Sasuke let out a small chuckle, “they don’t want to interrupt this very important meeting.”

Sasuke winked at Naruto, allowing Naruto’s entire body to implode. Naruto didn’t know any more if Sasuke was flirting or just being sarcastic, he didn’t want to presume anything so he assumed it to be sarcasm.

-1.30 am-

Both Sasuke and Naruto where drunk, laughing loudly about old stories of their youth. Naruto being drunk, flirtatiously stated Sasuke was the best first kiss in the world, as time went by the conversation grew overly flirtatious. The alcohol had seemed to have taken down any barriers that were set between them at the start of the conversation and Sasuke had also seemed to have relaxed and was sitting happily listening to Naruto’s drunken jokes.

3 am

Naruto’s vision was blurred, he could only see Sasuke glowing amongst the blurred room. The rest of the world didn’t matter, it was all a mesh of colours. He couldn’t stop staring and he was too drunk to care anymore. He decided he would just allow himself to stare lovingly at this gorgeous creature.

A knock was heard on the door and suddenly the walls came crushing down back into focus. Naruto finally started paying attention to everything else that made up his surroundings besides the man that was in front of him.

 “Sorry Hokage sama, we are closing in 30 minutes, we are doing last call. Would you or Sasuke like anything else?”

Naruto looked at their table full of several drinks, he looked at the bar tender and laughed.

“I think we have had enough, but thank you. I think we will be leaving now anyways, I think we both had a bit too much to drink.”

Sasuke drunkenly laughed at Naruto’s statement.

“Okay Hokage, we hope you had a lovely night, hope to see you soon.”

“Not too soon, I need to recover my liver.”

“Yes, of course.”

With that statement, Naruto who was significantly less drunk than Sasuke due to his abnormally high healing powers decided to pay and pick up a very wobbly Sasuke. They both left the private room and thanked the bar tender for all her services.

 They left the bar trying but ultimately failing to act sober.

Sasuke and Naruto stood outside the bar in the cold, they started walking back to the Hokage tower.

“Hey Sasuke in an hour we would have to start work, can you imagine coming to work with this hang over?”

“Tch, I would rather be stabbed than have to focus on your hokage nonsense for another day.”

“Hey, teme I’m not that bad, I kind of know what I’m doing.”

“Tch, I did most the work… Hey Naruto?”

“Hm?”

“Thanks for paying the bar tab. Next time Ille shout okay?”

Naruto did a little happy inside dance, Sasuke just said next time and everything inside him became warm again.

“Ille hold you to it.”

Naruto and Sasuke stopped at the Hokage tower and looked at each other. Neither one wanting to depart the other.

“This is me, haha, very homely huh?”

“Hahaha, yer… very homely.”

Naruto looked into Sasuke’s eyes, he wanted to kiss him so badly. His lips looked so pink and soft, he was glowing in the dim street light that hung above them. Naruto noticed Sasuke had seen where Naruto’s eyes were looking and he started to blush.

“Anyways Sasuke, I should be going. Will you be okay getting home by yourself?”

“Yer, I don’t think Ille die.”

“Sarcastic ass hole.”

Naruto started to make his way to the door, before he arrived at the handle he stopped and turned around.

“Hey teme, thank you for all the help this past week. You truly made waking up 4 am pretty dam worth it.”

Sasuke didn’t even hold back this time, he smiled so widely and happily. He was radiating joy.

Naruto realized this was it. This was love. Real unconditional love. This man had his heart now. Naruto smiled back with a smile that also glowed like the sun.

“Goodnight teme!”

With that Naruto turned back to the door, trying hard to push his body forward towards the door, he needed to get out of that heart wrenching scene, if he saw Sasuke smile like that one more time he was going to lose it.

He reached the door handle and started to turn it, he felt a hand on his shoulder. Naruto turned around, to find Sasuke now tearing up. Naruto’s body felt like electricity had run straight through it, he has never seen Sasuke like this. His heart was being torn apart with each tear Sasuke was shedding.

“I’m sorry Naruto, I can’t do it anymore. I can’t pretend that I don’t care. I can’t. I love you too much. This is killing me.”

Naruto was out of breath, he was in shock. He was going to crack, he was going to lose it. He was on his last thread. He needed to stay calm. Remember his kids. He can’t let go. Not yet.

Everything stopped spinning, his head no longer throbbed in pain. His heart was being mended back from the brink of destruction. He was slowly started to feel again. It was in that moment when Sasuke had kissed Naruto, when his soft lips finally reached Naruto’s, that Naruto felt it.

The last thread.

It was cut off.

He was free.

Sasuke started to properly cry, letting tears escape his blood shot eyes.

“Naruto. I am sorry. I didn’t mean to… I know you’re with Hinata. I shouldn’t have done that. Fuck! I will leave.”

Naruto grabbed Sasuke’s hands harshly, applying a little bit too much pressure that it had started to turn Sasuke’s arm red.

“Sasuke…”

Naruto breathed in and looked Sasuke in his red torn eyes.

“I love you. I have for a while. I’m done. I can’t do this anymore as well. I hate my relationship, I hate the fake ass smile I have had on for month now, I hate that I have loved for you so long and I haven’t been able to tell you. I hate that every time I saw you I wished I could kiss you and make you mine. I hate that everything inside me has been dyeing, every time I went home to my fake ass relationship. I would fucking despair all of it Sasuke. The only light I had was my kids and you. Even though you were out of my reach you where there as a friend. Thank you.”

Sasuke’s eyes where wide with shock, he didn’t move an inch even after Naruto released his arm.

“Naruto, I… I…”

Naruto didn’t wait any longer, he closed the gap between them and took Sasuke into the longest and most passionate kiss, he didn’t want to hold back anymore. He was ready to tell Sasuke everything, he was ready to be with him officially.

He didn’t care about the next wave of pain that would hit him when he tells Hinata his decision. He had Sasuke and he felt something in the midst of pain. Happiness.

“Sasuke, would you like to sleep here tonight?”

Sasuke’s face slightly turned bright red, he nodded and started to walk towards the door. As Naruto watched the man of his dreams walk forward he realised something.

He was free, the final thread was now cut, he could finally let go.


	11. Letting go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto and Sasuke both have wives and children in Konoha. One drunken reunion gets a bit out of hand, and Naruto drunkenly accepts to recreate a kiss that happened long ago. This kiss starts a chain reaction, which leads to a confession which has been held for many years.
> 
> -Trying to stay as true to the series, so N/H and S/S are already canon :(. But there will be twist and turns that leads to a different ending.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Don't read it if you don't like the Naru/Sasu pairing.

-8 am-

Naruto felt like a sheet of warmth was surrounding him.  His heart felt swollen from joy, it had beaten so quickly in last 24 hours that it soon had strained out. He slowly opened his eyes, squinting at the bright sun which radiated from the window into his room. 

Naruto felt a strange heat over his stomach, he looked down and saw a pale arm wrapped tightly around his stomach.

Naruto was hit with the realization that Sasuke was laying in his bed. His heart started to increase once again, he felt strange tingly sensations running up and down his arms. His drunk self-had forgotten that he had finally confessed to Sasuke what he was really feeling.

Naruto was beyond happy, this little moment in the Hokage’s bed, Sasuke literally millimetres away from him. He had dreamt of this moment for so long and it finally was here.

Naruto turned around to slowly face Sasuke. Trying desperately to turn smoothly so he didn’t wake him.

As Naruto turned around he was faced with tired black eyes and a soft loving smile. He felt it again, that sensation of electricity, his heart swelling up and butterflies bubbling in his stomach. Naruto was so undeniably in love, how could he not feel this way towards utter perfection? Especially when he smiled like that.

“Did I wake you Sasuke?”

“Hm, yer, but that was probably the best wakeup call I’ve had in my life.”

Naruto exploded internally, every cell in his body was unable to cope with the level of joy and contentment he felt.  He looked at Sasuke and vibrantly smiled, forcing small tears to fall from the corner of his eye.

Sasuke softly wiped them away with his fingers and then went back to lovingly staring at Naruto, memorising every angle of his body as the morning light hit his perfectly sculpted muscles in glorious ways.

There was a moment in the bliss of the morning scene, birds chirping and the sunrise light filtering in and highlighting every muscle of Sasuke’s upper body, where Naruto felt like he was floating, blissfully unaware of reality.

Naruto immediately came down from cloud nine when he realized the realism of the scene he was currently in.

Sasuke was laying in his bed half naked. Naruto looked down and saw that the only thing covering his bare chest was the blanket.

“Fuck Sasuke, we didn’t have…?”

“Sex? Tch, no baka. Firstly, I’m not that easy, you are going to have to wine and dine me Naruto Uzumaki before you get into my pants.  Secondly, you where drunkenly ranting about how you have to break it off officially with Hinata, before you could be ready for anything.”

Naruto regrettably forgot he had to tell Hinata today. There was no going back after last night with Sasuke.

“Fuck. Right I have to tell Hinata.”

Sasuke’s eyes widened in horror.

“Wait! Naruto, don’t tell me you didn’t mean anything you said last night?”

“Oh my god Sasuke. No, I meant everything.”

Sasuke untensed and let out a small breath.

“It’s just…”

“Naruto?”

“I’m scared Sasuke.”

Sasuke sat up and brought Naruto into a deep hug, full of security and love.

“I know its scary Naruto. But, if not now? When?”

“No, it has to be now, there is no way I’m going back to the way things were.”

Naruto struggled to get out of Sasuke’s tight grip. He managed to wriggle out and grab Sasuke by his arms.

“Look at me Sasuke.”

Sasuke didn’t waver, he was fully invested in the next words that would leave Naruto’s mouth.

“I love you, I do. But the next couple of weeks are not going to be easy. So, I just need you to be here for me.  Can you do that?”

“Of course, Usuratonkachi.”

Sasuke smiled widely, grabbed Naruto and pulled him into a long passionate kiss, which may have gone longer than planned.

-10 am-

“Hinata?”

“Hello? You never call my phone. Is something wrong?”

“Um, can you please do me a favour?”

“Uh, sure?”

“Can you take the kids to Sakura’s for a sleep over. I have already called in advance. After that can you please meet me by the training grounds?”

“Um, okay?”

“See you in 20 minutes?”

“Okay. See you then, but what’s going o…”

Naruto hanged up his phone, took in a deep breath.

He knew this was going to hurt. But he needed to treat it like a band aid, rip it off quickly. Naruto changed into some extra Hokage uniform which was laying in the room, completely oblivious that Sasuke was in the room.

“AHH, SHIT! Sasuke, sorry I forgot you were still in my room. Let me just… put my pants back on.”

Naruto had turned bright red and Sasuke was making unnatural animalistic noises and breathing at a thousand miles per hour.

“Are you okay?”

“Yer... what makes you think I’m not okay?”

“You look like your about to pass out. Is my package that good?”

Naruto loved teasing Sasuke, now that he could tease him in more ways than one, he was going to have some fun playing around.

“Aw, is Sasuke kun already keen for this? Well I can’t blame you. I mean look at me.”

“Pff, you wish you were all that. Trust me you pale in comparison to some I’ve seen.”

“TEME!”

“Aw is Naruto kun jealous already?”

Naruto forgot how good Sasuke was at come backs. As much as he wanted to shove a fist in his face, he now also wanted to jump his bones.

God this was going to be a confusing ride between being horny about sexy Sasuke, wanting to fight him but also wanted to hold him tight in his arms.

Naruto needed to stop letting Sasuke distract him, he only had 10 minutes to get to the training grounds and start probably the worst conversation humanly possible.

“Tch, stop annoying me Teme, I have to focus, I have to use the right words and make sure I’m not harsh or anything. She is the mother of my children and has been my wife for years.”

“Hmph, I know Naruto. Just remember to reassure her you tried everything in your power to try and make it work.”

Naruto took in a sharp breath, turned around kissed Sasuke quickly and walked out. He was determined and nothing could stop him from breaking up with Hinata.

-12 pm-

Naruto paced back and forth, remembering the things he needed to say. He was sweating from every possible place; his mind was a wreck thinking of every imaginable way that this could go horribly wrong. He imagined Hinata stabbing him, or taking Naruto in a bag and throwing him off a cliff. He was scared of hurting her, but at the same time he wasn’t keen to deal with a pissed-off Hinata.

“Naruto?”

Oh fuck, this is it. Deep breaths. In and out.

“Hinata, thanks for coming. Want to have a seat?”

“Okay? Naruto why the hell am I out here?”

Naruto gulped sharply, feeling a sharp pain in his throat as he did so. He knew this wasn’t going to be easy. He needed to treat it like a band aid.

“Hinata, I am so sorry. I want a divorce.”

Naruto automatically started panicking. He fell to the ground in an attempt to disappear.

“I am so, so, so, so sorry. I tried so hard Hinata, I did.”

Naruto couldn’t bear the pain he felt, he hated himself to the point where everything inside him had set on fire.

 

Naruto felt a warm embrace surround him, his heart steadied to a slower pace.

“Naruto look at me.”

Naruto didn’t know if he could face Hinata in the eye, but he had to look up for her sake. Surprisingly Naruto found Hinata smiling lovingly, with small tears falling down her cheeks.

“Naruto, I’ve known this was coming for a long time.”

Naruto was shocked, he was unsure what to feel at this point. How did Hinata know? Did he make it that obvious that he was unhappy in their relationship?

“To be honest Naruto, I have been feeling the same way as you.”

“You were?”

“Naruto, we literally didn’t talk and if we did, it would mostly be a fight or about your work. I couldn’t stay happy in whatever fucked up shit we had going. Did you see us? We were miserable. And don’t think I didn’t notice you trying really hard at the end, and it was sweet. But I felt nothing I was already dead inside, were you not Naruto?”

Naruto stopped shaking at this point and moved to a position that was more comfortable.

“How come you never told me?”

“Well, Naruto. The kids. I didn’t know what to do. They are going to be broken. But I also couldn’t handle what we became in the last couple of years. And I know this isn’t going to be easy, and it hurts a lot right now. But I also think this is for the best.”

Naruto in that moment remembered why he fell in love with Hinata in the first place, it was things like this that made him appreciate the women he married.

“So, you are okay?”

“Well it obviously hurts, but to be honest, I was planning on doing it myself soon. I knew this was coming for a long time.”

“Hinata, I know this is going to be tough, but I am glad it’s with you. I know we can work through this together.”

Hinata had a genuine smile on her face. Mixed emotions of pain and love swirling in her eyes. It was a bitter sweet moment between the newly broken up pair.

 

“Naruto, promise me something?”

“Of course, what is it?”

“Promise you will spend time with the kids, don’t just disappear on them. They are going to need you active in their lives more than ever.”

“I know Hinata, the only reason it took me so long to break this up, was because I was terrified of hurting them.”

“Huh, that’s been running through my head as well.”

Naruto got up from the ground and extended his arm to help Hinata off the floor.

“We can get through this.”

“I know we can Naruto, just promise me you won’t go running off with someone else too soon.”

Naruto nervously chuckled, because waiting for him back in the Hokage tower was Sasuke.

“Haha, I will try.”

-1 pm-

Naruto walked back to the Hokage tower feeling surprisingly empty but also free. He felt like weights resting on his shoulders were finally released and set free.

Hinata decided she wanted to be the one to tell the kids, even though Naruto protested, she made a solid argument about why both of them shouldn’t be in the same room when they got told.

Naruto wondered how the kids would react, Hinata promised to call immediately after to tell Naruto what happened. He felt an obligation to be there when it happened, but he also understood Hinata’s perspective and respected her choice to do it alone.

He looked up to the sky, a new day for him. Finally, a single man, free at last. He thought about Sasuke in his room and an odd and desperate sinking feeling hit his stomach.

Sasuke was leaving tomorrow for his week-long mission. Naruto started panicking he didn’t want to be alone for the first week of being divorced. He was going to have to deal with his children’s sorrow and possible anger at him, all without Sasuke.

He started considering cancelling it, he was Hokage after all. But he didn’t want the chunin to be upset, they have been talking about this mission for weeks. Sasuke would probably be happy doing nothing, and more than content to not have to deal with pre-teens.

Naruto let out a depressive sigh, this week was going to be long. Alone, recently divorced and kids that probably hated his guts now.

“Huh.”

“What’s with the depressive sigh, good looking?”

“SASUKE!”

Naruto immediately felt like sun was shining in his soul, his pain slowly numbing away with the sight of Sasuke’s small smile and welcoming embrace.


	12. Kids and Kisses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto and Sasuke both have wives and children in Konoha. One drunken reunion gets a bit out of hand, and Naruto drunkenly accepts to recreate a kiss that happened long ago. This kiss starts a chain reaction, which leads to a confession which has been held for many years.
> 
> -Trying to stay as true to the series, so N/H and S/S are already canon :(. But there will be twist and turns that leads to a different ending

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Don't read it if you don't like the Naru/Sasu pairing.

Naruto was anxious, his breath becoming increasingly unsteady. This would be the first time seeing his kids since the official break up, and from what Hinata had said on the phone both of them had no intention of speaking to him or Hinata.

Naruto wasn’t sure how to handle a situation like this, he was as confused as they were. On top of all this commotion, Sasuke had been out on a mission for a couple days and Naruto was missing him terrible.

He missed his smile which could brighten an entire room. He missed his hugs and stupid jokes.

In total, he just wanted him home.

Naruto looked towards the desk in his room were his hokage cloak hanged cleaned and untouched. Kakashi had agreed to fill in for Naruto until he was back on his feet, with Shikamaru over looking Naruto knew the village was in safe hands. He didn’t like taking time off from work because being Hokage meant to fully devote yourself to the protection of the people, and he felt like he was letting everyone down.

But Naruto just didn’t have it in him, he felt drained of energy and his heart felt enormously empty.

He knew his kids were going to be an issue, on top of that, he was unsure when to announce the fact that he and Sasuke were dating, well actually was he?

Neither of them had talked about it yet, they just drunkenly confessed their bottled love for each other. But Sasuke nor Naruto had yet said the ‘boyfriend’ or ‘dating’ word, which made Naruto extremely frantic and scared that Sasuke could leave and expect Naruto to have known it was casual from the beginning.

Naruto let the thought slide into the back of his mind, right now his kids were his priority, then Konoha and lastly Sasuke. He couldn’t let that dark haired, extremely handsome, eyes made of dark gold that could consume you in one glance…

“God dammit Naruto. GET YOUR SELF TOGETHER! This is no time to be thinking about Sasuke.”

With a quick lecture to himself, he was out the door and off to see his children for the first time. He was determined to make them understand that this changed nothing, that he would be the father they needed.

He stepped outside to be greeted with a cool gentle breeze, a refreshing start to his morning. The trees rustled in the distance as the wind brushed fallen leaves across his feet. Naruto took in a deep breath, ready to take on the day.

\----

Naruto sees a door he is all too familiar with. That door was considered the entry to his home for years, and now he was a stranger to this door which left his chest feeling heavy. As much as Naruto was happy in the choice to call it quits with Hinata, he missed coming home to his children a great deal.

He only wished with time, that he could start a new family, one that could include all those he cared about. Naruto started pondering this dream of having a big family with Sasuke. Having Boruto, Himawari and Sarada all in the same house hold with Hinata and Sakura also being a part of this family and being happy for Sasuke and Naruto. But dreams are not reality and Naruto surely knew that.

Naruto knocked on the door. The handle swiftly turned to reveal a house which he could no longer could call home.

“Hinata, how have you been?”

“I have been okay Naruto, but it’s been very hard on the kids. They refuse to eat or come out of their rooms, I don’t know what to do. They barely want to talk to me and they refuse to go with you next week. I am so torn Naruto, I knew it would be hard, but… not like this.”

Tears started to fall down Hinata’s cheeks, automatically Naruto went to hug her and tend to her tears. As he wiped away the last tear Naruto realised he was hugging Hinata, he wasn’t sure if Hinata would want them to be so close after only being divorced for nearly a week.

“Hinata, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to invade your space.”

“No Naruto, it’s okay. Thank you. I do care for you Naruto and no mater our divorce, I will always wish for your happiness. So being civil and generally caring for each other, is the way I wish we could be.”

“We can be like that Hinata, that’s what I have been thinking as well. I just wished that we can be one big happy extended family at the end of the day.”

 

Naruto held his tongue before he could slip in the part of adding Sasuke, Sarada and Sakura to the addition. He took off his shoes and walked into the room that filled him with familiar scents, a smell he didn’t realised he had missed so much till that moment.

Naruto patted Hinata on the shoulder assuring her with silent words that this would be okay. He let himself take in a deep breath giving him enough courage to walk upstairs and enter the games room.

\----

Naruto opened the door slowly and quietly. He stepped inside without a word.

Steadily he knelt all the way down to the ground. By this moment both Himawari and Boruto had noticed his presence. Both children stayed in their place far away from Naruto.

As Naruto started kneeling down, Himarwi and Boruto’s expressions grew more confused. Mixed emotions surfaced both of their faces, but Boruto showed more signs of anger than anything else.

“Kids, I want you to listen. Don’t interrupt me until I am done. Got it?”

Both kids unwillingly replied with a stubborn ‘hmph’ with forced nods of approval to allow Naruto his time to speak. Naruto had a small smile of gratitude, but also didn’t lower his ‘dad’ figure just yet.

“Kids, I want you to know that me and mum did not do this to hurt you, we love you more than words can describe. We are doing this for our happiness, both of us have been extremely unhappy and have tried our best to make this work. I want you know that me and mum are still friends, we are happy in our choice and I know this will take time to understand but we hope you guys can help make this easier for me and mum.”

Naruto looked into both of their eyes for moment. Sadness filled the air, but there was an under-layer of understanding.

“We love you and we will try to make you two happy separately. I know as well I haven’t been the best dad, but I plan on spending a lot more time with both of you, I want to make sure I don’t make the same mistakes as many fathers have in the past, which is concentrating so much on my job and not having any time for you two.”

Naruto started to tear up, something he rarely did in front of his children. Both Boruto and Himawari were shocked by the scene that played before them.

Himawari was the first to jump up and run to her crying father.

Himawari embraced every inch of Naruto, letting her tears fall onto her arm as she attempted to squeeze harder. 1 minute later Boruto walked towards Naruto, looked him in the eye and smiled.

“Dad, I promise I will surpass you and make you proud, no matter what. I will be the best ninja there ever was, and this isn’t going to stop me, just you watch!”

Naruto let out a small chuckle as Boruto jumped into the pile of mushy hugs and tears, until time had seemed to slip away.

By the time Naruto left his old home he felt extremely bitter sweet. Progress had been made and both of the kids had seemed to simmer down. He managed to get them to eat dinner and agree to try and make this work.

Hinata seemed ecstatic over the progress and Himawari and Boruto ended up apologizing and smothering Hinata in hugs for a solid 20 minutes. Naruto was glad he left on a positive note, but what rang clear in his head was the fact that he was leaving. That sinking feeling hit him hard and the realism that he was no longer part of that house and part of the picture was the thing that caused knives to dive into his heart and make him feel utterly powerless.

As much as things with Hinata were never well off, Naruto valued family, he loved the idea of family. Seeming as he never had one when he was younger he loved to believe he could create a loving happy family. To see it fade away after years was as disheartening as having to leave after dinner to his separate home.

Naruto was sure that one day he would achieve that paradise he was looking for. A place were all his happy places finally met.

“Heaven.”

The only word that rang in Naruto’s mind for the next ten minutes was heaven. A place Naruto is sure he still hasn’t seen and he feared how his heart would cope if he was ever so lucky to be taken there.

\----

Naruto walked to his home, which was some bland space he was renting out for the mean time. The room had no life or colour to it, the walls were painting grey and most of the furniture was either a dull black or grey to match the walls. Every time he stepped inside he felt his heart sink a little bit more.

He was so desperately happy sitting on a table eating dinner with his children, he was even happy to have Hinata there. The energy in the room felt warm and genuine, nothing fake nor manufactured. It felt organic and Naruto craved to stay longer. But Boruto and Himawari had to go to bed and once they left Naruto felt like a slice of his heart went with them.

Naruto changed into his hokage uniform, finally deciding it was time to make an appearance at his work place, but he was determined to set up rules and boundaries that allowed him to spend more time with his children. He was going to keep his promise this time around.

Naruto stepped outside his depressive apartment, with his colourful hokage uniform ready to become everything he promised his children he would be.

As he locked the door behind him, he could notice a black figure down the corridor. Instantly Naruto’s chakra kicked in, his senses had doubled and his hair stood on edge. The black figure creeped closer and closer. Every step closer Naruto would slowly get closer to his kunai.

“Now look at this, has the hokage finally returned from his slumber? I heard you’ve been slacking off whilst I was working hard.”

Naruto was full of 100 emotions.

He knew that voice like the back of his hand, but he was fuming at the black figure for scaring the living day lights out of him.

“You scared the shit out of me Sasuke, what the hell are doing here two days early?”

The black figure emerged out from the darkness and into the light, revealing a porcelain man that made the tattered uniform seem as though it was for a catalogue photoshoot.

“Is that a proper hello to your boyfriend?”

Naruto was gone at this point, if the man spinning a kunai around his finger walking sensually towards him wasn’t enough, then the fact that Sasuke just used the words ‘boyfriend’ had definitely done it.

Naruto honestly believed he blanked out for a moment, because the last thing he remembers is standing by his door way.

\----

Naruto’s reflexes were so quick that in less than a second he had Sasuke pinned to a wall, his eyes glowing neon blue in the dark corridor. Sasuke smiled cheekily, knowing his taunting was stirring up Naruto.

“You missed me that bad, huh?”

“You wish.”

Naruto let his lips skim Sasuke’s without actually pressing down. He knew how the game was played and he was prepared to win.

“Tch, you tease.”

“You have to wine and dine me before you get any of this. Wise words from a very sexy friend of mine.”

“Friend?”

Sasuke’s eyes seemed pent up with both rage and lust for the man who was slowly walking away back into the light of the street.

“You heard me lover boy. Friend. We shall see how well you wine and dine now that you are back.”

Before Naruto could fully cross the light that separated him from the street Sasuke had him pinned him down harshly against a brick wall. He spared no expense of chakra seeming as half the bricks had split into pieces and started crumbling onto the floor.

“You’re paying for that.”

“Tch, gladfully.”

In an instant Sasuke’s lips were digging deep onto Naruto’s, the kiss was hot and heavy with steam circulating between the two men. The kiss sooner or later lead to a full make out session, with the world around them becoming a blurred hot mess.

Naruto didn’t hear the street that was centimetres away from him, he didn’t sense the bricks which pressed against his shirt and he sure as hell didn’t sense a living soul around them, besides the one that currently held his heart on a silver platter.

Naruto twisted and turned with Sasuke, digging his fingers deeply into his hair. He didn’t want this bliss to end, but alas it was Sasuke who pulled away with half lid eyes full of raging lust.

“So still a friend?”

“Hm, border line.”

Naruto winked at Sasuke, but this motion just turned Sasuke into a full on monster.</p>

“Look here Hokage, if you wish to keep this friendly, I can do that, but let me tell you. If we start this war, you will have to do a lot more than wine and dine me to get anything out of me.”

“Wooooh, isn’t someone a bit upset I won’t call them my boyfriend? Fine boyfriend Uchiha, wish to join me for drinks?”

Sasuke had a soft and triumphant smile on his face but suddenly turned a soft shade of pink.

“Uh Naruto, you might have to wait, I still have a bit of a situation down there.”

Naruto followed Sasuke’s eyes and then was struck with the fact that both of them were quite turned on from that.

“Yer, agreed.”

Naruto embarrassingly laughed it off, until their bodies turned stone cold as they finally noticed they weren’t alone. Naruto and Sasuke turned around to look who was down the corridor firmly leaning against the wall with a book in his hand.

“Kakashi?”

 “Hello.”

Naruto gulped down painfully, terrified of exactly what he heard and what he saw.

“Uh Kakashi, how much of that did you see?”

“Enough. To be honest I’m not that surprised, I am madder that I have been doing your job whilst you are here making out.”

“Hey! Sasuke just got here from a mission!”

“Hm, I know he came to me first thinking you would be there. As soon as he saw me he went from showing actual human emotions to stone cold bitch once again. So naturally I was curious where he was going in such a rush and alas I found him here.”

Naruto didn’t know what to feel, he was terrified of all this coming out to soon for Hinata and the kids to handle, he was desperate to plea with Kakashi, to keep his mouth shut.

“Now, I will keep quiet about all this, if you buy me dinner and the new icha-icha paradise/tactics book.”

Sasuke coldly asked back “is that all your highness?”

“Uh Mr. Uchiha, I would be careful speaking like that to me I do hold a big leverage over you so be nice to your sensie.”

Sasuke just let out an irritated huff, unwilling to partake in Kakashi’s games, but Naruto would do anything to keep him quiet.

*Ramen Shop*

The ramen shop hadn’t seen the dynamic 3 eating together in a long time. And by god, was it not like the old days. There was a loud and vibrant Naruto trying to fill the air with conversation, a moody Sasuke who did not want to be there and lastly Kakashi who was extremely content with his new book and free bowl of ramen, enjoying the power he obtained over the two.

All that was missing was a flirtatious Sakura, which is convenient, because tables have turned and Naruto wanted him 100 times more than she ever did back in the day.

_Having the two fight over Sasuke’s attention would surely make for an interesting dinner_


	13. Its time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto and Sasuke both have wives and children in Konoha. One drunken reunion gets a bit out of hand, and Naruto drunkenly accepts to recreate a kiss that happened long ago. This kiss starts a chain reaction, which leads to a confession which has been held for many years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Don't read it if you don't like the Naru/Sasu pairing.

Naruto was excited but hesitant towards today. He woke in the morning with a strange queasy feeling in his stomach. His hands clenched into tight fists when his stomach convulsed in the strangest ways.

He looked down to see Sasuke’s limp hand on his stomach, lying there lifeless as he slept. He was enormously tempted to kiss it awake but he didn’t want Sasuke to murder him, so he decided best not.

Today was the day. The day he was excited to get over and done with. Tonight, after work he was meeting with Sakura and Hinata to finally tell them about his relationship with Sasuke.

He wasn’t sure how they would take it, but it had been 3 months since the divorce and he didn’t want to stretch it out anymore. On top of that Kakashi was draining them of their money to keep his mouth shut, which was starting to have a heavy toll on Naruto’s bank account.

His frog money pouch had been so skinny for the last couple of months and Naruto was starting to feel sorry for it.

Naruto looked over to Sasuke, he slowly bent down and kissed his warm cheek earning him a mumbled grunt. He slipped out of bed and headed for his daily morning shower.

As he walked down the grey corridor that lead him to his shower he started liking the colour of the blank grey walls. He wasn’t sure if the colour had grown on him or if it was due to him moving out next week with Sasuke which made him feel sad of letting go of this shitty apartment.

He entered the bathroom, hissing as his feet hit the cold tiled floors. He reached for the water tap turning it on, making sure that it was going to be blistering hot when he got in.  He turned around to find his towel whist simultaneously ripping off his clothes, a routine he had down packed.

As he stepped into the shower he knew he was no longer alone.

“Sasuke, you do know I am not a private peep show, right?”

“Well you certainly are a sight to look at.”

Naruto chuckled lightly. He loved this. He loved waking up with Sasuke, talking to him in the morning, being with him through every mundane daily morning routine.

“Well are you going to just look at me you perv? Or are you coming in the shower?”

“Tch, like you even need to ask.”

Naruto made two coffees to go, pouring 5 times the amount of sugar in one and leaving the other as bitter as possible. He handed Sasuke his dark coffee, grabbed the house keys and hurried his sleepy boyfriend out the door.

Sasuke had yet accustomed to Naruto’s morning time, but seeming as he refused to let Naruto go to work alone he had to face the pain of waking up before the sun rose.

It surprised Naruto how normal it felt to have Sasuke in his life, it felt more natural than anything else his ever done. The mundane task at home didn’t seem so boring anymore, going grocery shopping turned into balls of laughter and staying home on the weekends had become his most treasured past times.

Naruto was happy, after so many years he finally reached happiness. His heart had been filled with joy over the past few months, something it wasn’t very used to.

Naruto and Sasuke walked in silence, both blissfully happy in each other’s company. Naruto looked over to Sasuke never truly being satisfied with a glance, wishing he could stare for hours and get away with no one noticing.

He had never seen Sasuke so at ease before, he usually had a smirk on his face when they were together which made every part of Naruto warm up like he had just taken a sip of hot tea.

Naruto was not only glad for his own happiness but it brought him great joy seeing Sasuke finally opening up, being kinder and happier instead of dark and moody all the time. Naruto started giggling to himself thinking about how much Sasuke had changed over the last few months.

“What are you laughing about dobe?”

“Oh, nothing.”

“What? Tell me, or I might have to chidori your ass.”

“Hm, I just think your becoming soft Uchiha, I don’t think you have threatened to kill anyone in the last month.”

“IM NOT SOFT!”

“Oh, I know you’re not.”

“Gross, get your head out of the gutters.”

\----

Naruto and Sasuke spent the entire time laughing about Sasuke becoming soft. But in reality Naruto knew Sasuke was changing for the better and he was beyond happy that Sasuke had also found his happy place.

 Before Naruto and Sasuke reached the door that lead into the Hokage tower Naruto stopped.

This was the same place were Sasuke and himself confessed everything, that night was seared into Naruto’s brain. He remembered Sasuke standing where he was and himself at the door trying to convince himself to not be happy. He was thankful to that night, if it weren’t for 20 plus drinks he wouldn’t be standing here today looking at his boyfriend.

“Hey teme!”

“Hm?”

“I love you.”

Sasuke was obviously trying to hide his smile, but the Sasuke who stood here today no longer needed a reason to suppress his feelings, so he decided to let it out.

Naruto was hit with a sight of pure perfection, Sasuke smiling amongst glistening stars which brightly sparkled around Sasuke, illuminating him against the rest of the world. He could never stop loving that man and no matter how long they were together he knew he would fall for that smile every single time.

Naruto entered his office with Sasuke not far behind. It was strange that his happiness had flowed into work. He no longer found the long nights and the overbearing paper work so hard and the reason was walking in right now with the most beautiful smile he has ever seen.

Since he started dating Sasuke he found he couldn’t get rid of him, nor did he want to. Sasuke spent most days helping Naruto if he didn’t have to be with his chunin team which Naruto never heard the end off.

Sasuke would constantly whine that he hated baby sitting and as much as Naruto tried to convince him that he was modelling the future generation, Sasuke still showed no sign of actually giving a crap.

Every other night Naruto would go spend time with his kids, he always had some crazy adventures planned for the evening and each night was a new night. Naruto didn’t let Sasuke off the hook for being literally one of the worst dads in existent, so Sakura was met with a big surprise when she saw Sasuke at her door after a night of Naruto pushing him to go. It seemed like everything was working out for the better with Naruto and Sasuke together.

Not only is Naruto getting his work done quicker and was ten times more productive at work with Sasuke around. He also spent more time with his children and was developing a tighter bond with both of them. Sasuke in the other hand was also improving in the father department, surprisingly going to see Sarada and Sakura more than once in a week now without Naruto constantly pushing him.

 Naruto had been glowing in the past months and people started to notice his change of behaviour and nature. The village was more surprised to find out Sasuke had a heart and his change in nature was being well received by pretty much everyone besides close friends who were wildly suspicious about his calm and nearly gentle nature. The only one who wasn’t suspicious was Kakashi because he knew exactly why both of them where in such high spirits of late.

\----

Naruto looked out his window, the day was beautiful, the sky crystal blue with a few scattered clouds. The streets where beginning to burst back to life with bakers and chefs starting up their ovens. A few ninja’s and early risers where wondering the streets greeting each other amongst the village.

Naruto felt a loving warm sensation caress him, weaving their arms around his lower stomach. A gentle kiss stroked his cheek.

“Sasuke you know Kakashi will be here in literally 2 minutes?”

“So? Torture him a little bit, why not?”

“Your evil, you know that?”

Sasuke let out a deep chuckle.

Naruto turned around and kissed Sasuke deeply, bitting his lower lip to tease him a little.

“Hey, calm down. Don’t tease me like that baka.”

“What you can’t handle me Uchiha?”

Sasuke let out a low growl, “I hate you.”

Naruto couldn’t handle how much he loved this man in every possible way.

“I love you too.”

Naruto picked up Sasuke and lowered him onto the Hokage table. Steadily wrapping his hands around his darkened locks.

He brought Sasuke an inch away from his lips and whispered, “I will never let you go again, you know that?”

“Hmph”, Sasuke grumbled in the midst of biting back Naruto’s lips.

Naruto harshly pushed his lips onto Sasuke’s wanting to taste everything he could, he was started to lose control.

 “Ahem…If I wanted to watch a porno I would have stayed at home.”

Both Naruto and Sasuke let out a chuckle. They loved torturing Kakashi seeming as they were still paying him to keep his mouth shut.

Recently they had been juicing the fact that Kakashi can’t tell anyone and every morning they would purposely try and act raunchy to piss him off.

“Hey Kakashi, you’re so early, I was about to pound Uchiha hard on the table. Shame.”

Sasuke’s eyes widened looking at Naruto with confusion.

“You where?

“No Baka, unless you want me to?”

Kakashi walked towards them and slammed him palm on the table.

“NO! I will kill you two.”

“Okay, okay sensei.”

Naruto winked at Kakashi and let Sasuke get down from the table.

“Okay team, let’s get to it. We have a lot of work to do and me and Sasuke have to be out of here by 7.”

Kakashi raised a questioning eyebrow, “what for?”

“Well let’s just say after tonight you can no longer bride us.”

“GOD DAMMIT! But there is a new book I want.”

Sasuke answered dryly, “what a shame.”

\----

The clock had seemed like it was going 5 times the normal speed, Naruto was annoyed because he wanted time to rehearse what he was going to say to Hinata and Sakura but before he knew it the clock was already reaching 7pm.

“Okay good job team! Let’s pack up or me and Sasuke are going to be late.”

Kakashi yawned and slowly started moving the packs of paper back to the table.

“But if you go, that means I won’t be able to bribe you anymore, so I am going to move slowly.”

Sasuke darkly chuckled, “oh Kakashi this is going to be fun, no more bribing bullshit.”

Naruto looked over to the two bickering children and questioned how both these men where over 12 years old.

Naruto made 5 clones which got the job done in 2 seconds.

“You guys kept acting like children and weren’t actually doing anything about cleaning up, so I just did it for you.”

Naruto raised his eyebrows in annoyance and folded his arms in the best father figure position possible.

“Okay Sasuke if you are done arguing with Kakashi we have somewhere to be.”

“Hmph.”

Kakashi laughed at Sasuke, whilst pulling out a book.

“I would kill you if it were up to me” Sasuke hissed back at Kakashi’s childish laughter.

“Okay, off we go. Bye Kakashi, oh and be here at 6 am to start the paper work as punishment for being mean to my boyfriend.”

“Hey! That’s not fair!”

“UH! Hokage orders.”

Sasuke chuckled in mild amusement from the whole scene.

“Sasuke I will kick you in the face next time.”

“Come get me grandpa” Sasuke taunted back.

Naruto pushed Sasuke out and left Kakashi standing in the Hokage’s room threating to ninja kick the shit out of Sasuke. As Naruto closed the door he let out an irritated sigh.

“You two act like your 12, next time I’m going to kick the both of you.”

“Hah, like you can take me on.”

Naruto looked at Sasuke with a cheeky and challenging look, “next week? Training grounds, let’s do it.”

“Oh, it is on Uzumaki.”

“For now, let’s think about our plan of attack for this dinner.”

“Oh yer. What about I’m gay I have the hots for your ex-husband and we have been together for 3 months. Sound good?”

 Naruto just let out a frustrated sigh, he knew this was going to be all on him. Passive and effective communication was something Sasuke never mastered and from that dismal answer he was still shit at it.

“You know what, let me do the talking.”

“Haha, sounds perfect.”

Sasuke stuck out his tongue cheekily at Naruto and then grabbed Naruto’s hand down the hallway. From today onwards they had no reason to hide their relationship and Sasuke was going to use this freedom to show the entire world Naruto was finally his.

“Teme are you going to hold my hand the whole way there?”

“Yup!”

“Alrighty then, prepare for stares galore.”

\----

Naruto’s premonition was correct, on their way to dinner everyone who saw Naruto and Sasuke holding hands had either started crying, screaming or their faces looked like they had unnaturally contorted to allow their jaws to fall to the ground.

Some people had enough courage to come up to both of them and ask what was going on, once they heard the news they congratulated both of them and gave Natuto a big hug.

No one came near Sasuke unless it was a slight tap of congratulations on the shoulder. Half the village was still scared of him and were still afraid of getting beaten up. Most of the village women and teens ended up crying over the fact Naruto was taken again, which Sasuke evilly snickered at.

Naruto let go of Sasuke’s hands as soon as the restaurant was in sight.

“Sorry teme, but I don’t think we should go in holding hands.”

“Tch, your right. Alright let’s do this.”

Naruto nodded his head looked at Sasuke lovingly and walked forward with his head held high.

\----

Naruto and Sasuke where sitting on one side of the table whilst Hinata and Sakura were sitting on the other. They decided to not talk about anything serious until the meal was over and everyone had gone through at least 2 rounds of drinks.

Both Hinata and Sakura had confused and worried looks when Naruto said they had big news but they were going to wait till the end of the meal to tell them.

 

After everyone had finished their second round of drinks Sakura couldn’t hold it in anymore.

“Okay, if you don’t tell us what this news is now I am going to explode, what the hell is happening?”

Naruto looked at Sasuke, steadied his breathing. He tried to calm his heart which was echoing in his ear drums.

“Well, um…”

Naruto struggled to express the words he was trying to say. He felt a loving hand wrap around his knee and saw Sasuke’s firm hand supporting his every breath.

“Well, this is going to be quite difficult to process and I really want you two to have an open mind.”

Both Sakura and Hinata nodded with worried creases covering their foreheads.

“Me and Sasuke are actually dating and we have been for a while now, we kind of feel in love. I know this might be strange, but both of us can’t stop the way we feel towards each other.”

Naruto took in another breath feeling is adams apple burn from the level of stress he felt.

“I Love him so much and I’m finally so happy, I just… Please don’t hate us, we want all of us to be happy and ultimately I would love to join both of our families together so we can be happy all together.”

Naruto waited for something, anything. But the room was dead quiet, all that could be heard was the noise from the restaurant outside their private room. The hurrying feet of waitresses and the chatter and laughter from other dinners echoed into their rooms.

“Sakura?

Sakura had an astonished look on her face, tears started to fill her eyes.

“Wow! Guys, I am so happy for you.”

A huge wave of relief washed over Naruto’s shoulders. Sakura got up and went to hug Sasuke tightly.

“Hinata?”

Naruto was trying to see Hinata behind Sakura who was coming closer for a hug. All he could see was her face completely red, her eyes swelling up. Her facial expression seemed like it had just seen death, she barely looked like she was breathing or blinking for the matter.

Hinata got up quickly, “if you please excuse me”.

Hinata ran out and slammed the door behind her. Naruto felt like the tightness come back to his chest and shoulders.

He looked at Sasuke who had a worried look glazed over his face.

“Should I?”

 Naruto stood up “no let me.”

He felt a hot liquid fill his heart, he hadn’t felt this sensation in a while. This overbearing feeling of sadness and pain, he thought he wouldn’t have to face it again. As he walked out the door, he heard Sakura energetically talking to Sasuke about him, he wished it could have been this easy with Hinata.

In the back of his mind he knew it wasn’t going to be, Sakura has known for years Sasuke was gay, Hinata in the other hand had a husband who she assumed was straight till right now.

Naruto quickly ran out the restaurant, looking up and down the street. Tears now filling his eyes, muscles clenching harshly within his chest. His breathe was unsteady, his pulse unbalanced.

“HINATA!!!!”


	14. Tears

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto and Sasuke both have wives and children in Konoha. One drunken reunion gets a bit out of hand, and Naruto drunkenly accepts to recreate a kiss that happened long ago. This kiss starts a chain reaction, which leads to a confession which has been held for many years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: don't read it if you don't like the Naru/Sasu pairing.  
> Authors notes: Hey peeps, dont worry I am still alive and kicking I just have been really busy with full time work atm, but dont worry still posting I love this story to much to not end it properly. And yes I will go back and fix the first couple of chapters formating, its a process ahahah, I have to uploud my other fanfic and then I can get around to fixing the first couple of chapters. <3

Naruto ran out of the restaurant pushing through the crowds of people desperately searching every corner for Hinata, he didn’t want to hurt her, that wasn’t his goal for tonight. He just wanted to be happy, that’s all.

Why was Hinata upset? He couldn’t grasp his head around what had just happened.

“Hinata! Where are you?”

Naruto heard sniffling at the end of a dark alley way, he slowly walked down the grey and ominous pathway which narrowed down until he found a crying Hinata under a flickering light.

Naruto looked at Hinata who was crying alone under the light which provided little light at the end of the dark alley way, he looked back to the vibrant street from which he came from wishing he could be there.

He didn’t want to spend tonight consoling Hinata, it was his day off tomorrow and he was meant to be spending time with Sasuke but he knew the right thing was to stay and make sure she was okay, but yet again it would be another time Hinata’s feelings came first before his.

He felt lethargic and unwilling to really try anymore, he just couldn’t understand why a potential happy night turned out like this due to Hinata. And as much as Naruto used to love her, he was getting tired of the same scenario with Hinata. That annoying feeling of always being pushed down or feeling guilty because she wasn’t happy.

Naruto pushed his feelings aside and reached out to the crying women on the floor.

“Hinata are you okay?”

Hinata looked up to Naruto and slowly nodded yes with tears still rolling down her flushed cheeks. He knelt down so he could look Hinata directly in the face, though he barely recognized the woman he was looking at. He looked at this person, broken and alone and yet he felt nothing for her. He wasn’t sure if it was due to him being left alone for so long without her reaching out for him why currently he felt no pity towards her.

“Why did you run away? Are you sad because I’m with Sasuke… I just don’t understand Hinata, you asked for the divorce as well, you said you also didn’t want to be with me, did something change?”

“Why?”

Hinata said whilst grabbing for Naruto’s hand in desperation for any answers he had. Naruto flinched at the contact, it felt foreign on his skin almost unwanted.

“Why what Hinata?”

“Why couldn’t you love me that way?” “Why does it have to be him? Why the fuck couldn’t you be happy with me?”

Naruto looked at her with utter confusion, he wasn’t sure if the drunk slurs where actually truthful or just drunk hurt talk.

“What do you mean? Hinata, Sasuke is...”

“He is a piece of shit Naruto, how are you fucking forgetting everything?”

Naruto started to accumulate anger in every inch of his body, he felt hot and flustered and swore he felt steam pumping out of his ears. How could this woman who made him feel invisible for so many years look at him and say shit about the only person who has managed to bring some fucking light into Naruto’s life.

Naruto took in a deep breath to calm himself, trying his best to not lose his shit.

“Hinata he is a good person, his changed.”

“Is he a good person… really?”

That was it Naruto was at rage mode, he couldn’t believe that the women he used to be married too could be so two faced and rude and downright wrong. He got up quickly, throwing Hinata’s hands off him during the process.

He started to walk off with steam fuming out of every crevasse of his body. He felt a cold hand hold him back, a hand which he wanted so badly to throw away with all the force he could summon at that moment.

“Naruto! STOP! I just….. it’s just… he was a rouge ninja for years Naruto, don’t forget his past.”

Hinata looked at Naruto with sadness, regret and a mild undertone of hatred.

“And what the fuck are you gay now? Are you just going to walk into my house with your new boyfriend and think that’s okay? Do you think I am going to let you influence our kids with your perverted way off life?”

Naruto looked at this foreign person, she was not Hinata, she was some form of devil that was trapped inside her skin, this lady who held him down could not be the woman he married many years ago.

“Hinata let go of me.”

Hinata lingered for a minute but ultimately let Naruto’s arm go.

“Firstly Hinata, that’s my fucking house I am just kind enough to let you keep it secondly, they are also my children, and I will fucki…”

 

Naruto tried to bite his tongue, he was losing any form of control, he breathed deeply, concentrating on nothing but his breath at that moment. He exhaled deeply and looked into drunken eyes with seemed to now have a pile of regret layered on top of them.

“Hinata I thought you would be happy for me. I thought that maybe, just maybe you would see that I am finally happy. And for some reason I thought that you would… just for once in your god dam life be happy that I am finally happy, instead of dragging me down like you did for so many years in our marriage.”

Naruto was trying to maintain his cool, he really was. But it seemed the amount of rage built in his system and the bubbling alcohol in his veins had set of a trigger and everything came flowing out like word vomit.

“Was all that shit about you just wanting me to be happy full of crap? Was everything we said to each other before we divorced just crap? Was it!?”

Hinata looked at Naruto with dazed eyes, full of questions and answers which now all came out as silent mumbles.

“I… Naruto… why didn’t we work through our problems? Why can’t we just try…?”

Naruto disgustingly turned away from Hinata, pissed off she would even ask that after all the shit she just said

“Hinata I did try, for years. There’s no turning back on what happened. I love Sasuke and from today onwards I will no longer hide that fact. He is a changed man and I will proudly introduce him as my partner to anyone with no fear and no embarrassment. I have never ever felt so happy in my life and if you truly loved me, you would be happy for me too.”

Naruto clenched his fist and stormed off. He walked faster and faster towards the light of the street, ignoring the calls from Hinata in the background. She mumbled sorry and his name in the midst of sobs which covered any form of apology she was attempting to give.

He reached a line which separated the alley way from the street. One side of the line was grey and dirty, if he turned around now he could apologise to Hinata, make sure she’s okay, take her home. The other side was bright and clean, there was leaves rustling past in the cooling wind which passed through the streets.

Naruto could hear Hinata crying and calling him to come back but he could also hear Sasuke calling out for him in the far-off distance.

He stepped forward into the light of the street not once turning back.

He was never going back, his future remained forever forward.

Naruto quickly found Sasuke and explained what had happened, both Sakura and Sasuke were completely shocked to hear about what had occurred. Sakura had offered to go talk to Hinata and calm her down.

As soon as Sakura found out where Hinata was hiding she leaped up to the nearest roof and ran off quickly.

Naruto and Sasuke were left alone, both looking out to the spot where Sakura had just left. Sasuke looked towards Naruto who wasn’t looking back at him, Sasuke’s face was dented with worry, his hands longed to reach forward and bring Naruto closer.

“You don’t want to go?”

“No!”

Sasuke was apprehended by Naruto’s haste reply, he knew there was more to the story than what Naruto had said and he was keen to find out.

“Naruto what actually happened? You can talk to me.”

Naruto looked at his boyfriend and clenched his fist. He didn’t want to tell him what Hinata had said about Sasuke’s past and he definitely didn’t want to mention Hinata’s homophobic concerns.

“It’s nothing, can we please go home?”

Sasuke nodded, but was reluctant to drop the question, so he decided to ask 2 more times on the way home and then dropped the topic.

Both Naruto and Sasuke walked home in silence. Naruto was ignoring Sasuke, trying to not bring up what had just happened, he wanted to forget it. He was obviously upset about how the night turned out and he was overall worried. The dream of creating a happy family with Sasuke, his children and everyone else was broken in one night by a singular person.

He wasn’t even surprised it was by his own ex. Naruto nervously picked at his thumbs and bite harshly on his nails. He wanted so badly for everyone to be happy for him. He just couldn’t understand why Hinata couldn’t for once do that for him.

Just be happy for him.

Naruto walked inside his apartment and went directly for the shower, he didn’t even notice Sasuke behind him who looked at Naruto with worried and questioning eyes.

Naruto walked down the corridor and picked up his towel which laid on the sink. He opened the shower glass door and turned the water to a luke-warm heat.

As he stripped off his clothes he noticed Sasuke slowly walking over. He couldn’t fight the fact that sooner or later he would have to tell him everything but right now wasn’t the time, he actually thought he would snap at Sasuke if he kept probing him for answers. He tried everything in his power to remain calm, he knew Sasuke was just worrying about him.

Naruto got into the water feeling the stress built up in his shoulder finally relax, the warming touch of the water provided him with comfort and his breath seemed to even out amongst the steam which slowly filled the glass shower.

Naruto’s eyes were closed but he could hear Sasuke also getting changed and finding a towel to join him. He was going to stay calm, he had to. He didn’t want to lose his temper with Sasuke, that’s the last thing he wanted.

“Hey dobe.”

Naruto looked up at Sasuke, reaching crimson eyes which glistened amongst the steamy shower. He silently begged Sasuke to not ask any more questions, his eyes literally screamed please don’t.

“Hm?”

“I love you. Whenever you are ready tell me, for now I am here.”

Naruto looked at this man, at this angel. How could he understand him so well, how does he know exactly what to say?

In mid thought, he felt Sasuke’s lips touch his forehead and his arms slowly wrap around his lower waist.

Naruto was in ecstasy, he didn’t know how this man made him feel so good.

He was undoubtedly in love with every inch of this man.

Naruto started to feel every part of him release, his tears ran freely down his cheek and onto Sasuke’s tensed shoulder. He couldn’t care less if Hinata didn’t support him and Sasuke, he would never let this man go. From now on and forever more he shall place every inch of his soul into Sasuke’s hands, he was no longer afraid of being hurt.

This man had Naruto’s heart and he trusted him to keep it safe.

“Teme, I love you.”

Sasuke’s arms wrapped around tighter, trying to consume Naruto in one solid hug.

“Sh, it’s okay. Ille always be here, right here.”

Naruto grabbed Sasuke’s arms and pushed him away slightly so their faces would only be an inch apart from each other’s.

The water fell on both of them creating an umbrella of water with both of them in the middle in utter intoxication for each other.

“Sasuke… she said she didn’t want you as a role model for my kids because you were once a rouge ninja and she also said some shit about us being gay…not nice things…”

Sasuke looked at Naruto with slight anger building in his eyes. Naruto could see he was trying his best to supress it.  Sasuke’s hands steadily curved around Naruto’s upper arms, pressing in slightly at the discomfort he felt.

“Well. That’s….”

Sasuke stumbled with his words, trying his best to bite down on his tongue. His fingers dug deeper and deeper into Naruto’s skin, never enough to actually hurt but enough to leave a white mark afterwards.

“Naruto, Hinata is upset, she lost her husband and is now finding out he is at least bisexual?”

Sasuke looked up to Naruto with a questioning eyebrow to signify he wasn’t truly sure what Naruto identified as anymore.

“Well I haven’t even thought about it till now, but I guess I am. Is that okay…?”

Sasuke chuckled lightly and smirked at his boyfriend who had a very confused and concerned look on his face, as if he thought his sexuality would be a complete breaking point for Sasuke.

“Of course, but she doesn’t know that. I bet she thinks you have been gay all this time, or something? Just give her time, she was a tad drunk, Hinata never drinks and she’s processing a lot, just don’t be so quick to cut her out of the picture. I would love to make your dream come true and that means she has to be on board.”

Sasuke smiled whilst slowly wiping away some tears which escaped Naruto’s eyes.

What dream?”

“Your dream of creating a big family with your kids and mine and grudgingly our ex-wife’s, haha.”

Naruto started to laugh, feeling lighter and happier than he was half an hour ago, he wasn’t sure how Sasuke always had this effect on him, but he was glad he did.

“Hm, I guess so, thanks teme.”

Naruto knelt in and kissed Sasuke on the forehead, taking a moment to truly appreciate Sasuke. He felt Sasuke’s heart slowly beating against his chest and his warm hands firmly placed on his lower back. Sasuke’s wet hair tickled the edges of his cheeks and his breathe slowly warmed Naruto’s lower throat.

This man was everything to him and he was ready to protect him with his life, like he always has. He wasn’t going to let anyone hurt him anymore and that included his ex-wife.

Naruto knew Sasuke was trying to be strong for him, but what Hinata said about him being a bad role model had defiantly set off Sasuke.

His eyes had a short flicker where all his emotions were right there for Naruto to read, but he shortly cut it off and placed on a fake smile.

“Sasuke, I love you. No matter your past.”

Naruto could feel warm water fall down his chest. He knew these droplets weren’t from the shower but from Sasuke. They carried a different level of warmth and feeling, and for some reason made Naruto’s skin jump and set his heart off into a fierce panic.

He tried to not bombard Sasuke with ‘are you all right, please don’t cry, you’ll be fine’, because he knew those were lost words with barely any meaning. Plus, Sasuke wasn’t that type of person.

He just held him, comforting him in loving silence.

His hands wrapped harder and harder around Sasuke and his heart leapt out of his chest to find Sasuke’s heart across the layers of skin which separated them.

_-All that could be heard was silenced sobbing mixed with the loud water which feel from the above shower head._

_Together in the shower of steamy water and salty tears were two broken pieces, which had finally joined together to make one whole. -_


	15. Somethings different?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto and Sasuke both have wives and children in Konoha. One drunken reunion gets a bit out of hand, and Naruto drunkenly accepts to recreate a kiss that happened long ago. This kiss starts a chain reaction, which leads to a confession which has been held for many years.  
> -Trying to stay as true to the series, so N/H and S/S are already canon :(. But there will be twist and turns that leads to a different ending

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Don't read it if you don't like the Naru/Sasu pairing.
> 
> I AM SORRY I HAVNT POSTED FOR A THOUSAND YEARS.. i have no excuse.. i am aware I AM A BAD PERSON.. i shall go to my box of shame.

Naruto looked at his face in the mirror, his face was drained of pigment, eyes strained and heavily blood shot. He hadn’t seen Hinata or his children in over a week, it was killing him to not go over there and literally bash the door down.

It was hurting Naruto, all of this felt like hell to him, not seeing his children, worrying constantly about what Hinata may have said.

Has she said something bad about Naruto? Or worse about Sasuke?

What if they hated him? What if they wanted nothing to do with him now? Did he ruin any chance of having a happy relationship with his children so he could chase his own happiness? How could he be so selfish?

“Naruto your up again? This is not helping, thinking the worst situations. Baby please just give it a week more before you go and talk to her?”

Naruto looked up at Sasuke with deeply heavy eyes, he wanted to hope that he was right that he was only over worrying about the whole situation but in reality, he was crumbling inside, his mind at that moment was his worse enemy.

“Sasuke it’s been a week, she hasn’t come to see me and what if she told the kids some horrible stuff about us?”

Sasuke adjusted his silk night gown whilst keeping constant eye contact with Naruto. He moved forwards slowly. The light bouncing off of Sasuke’s silk gown danced around smoothly creating a midnight sky colour.

Naruto was so mesmerized by his boyfriend, he could not mentally comprehend how he always looked like an angel that collapsed straight from the heavens at all occasions especially considering he just got out of bed.

Sasuke’s hair was loosely dangling in front of his eyes, his long fingers struggled to move some strands which had broken free and started to bother his vision.

Naruto tensed when Sasuke touched his shoulder to comfort him, he slowly came forward and pressed his warm lips on Naruto’s cheek, leaving a trail of butterflies which set Naruto’s skin on fire.

“Naruto, look at yourself.”

Naruto did exactly that, he saw a man drained of sleep. Purple skin deepening under his eyes, golden hair messily tangled in several knots. How has one week of worry turn him into this? How could Hinata do this to him again?

“Can you honestly tell me that worrying is helping? You are running yourself to the ground.”

Naruto was so sleep deprived and swamped with various emotions that the next thing he did he would regret so deeply.

“You would have no idea what I feel Sasuke, you barely see your daughter, I don’t know what kind of family you are trying to hold onto…”

“Fuck I’m sorry, I…”

Sasuke quickly removed his hand from Naruto’s shoulder. “Naruto, don’t treat me like I am your enemy. I am not Hinata, I am not the person who ran you down to the ground. You weren’t yourself for how many fucking years? Your family may have seemed normal from the outside but fuck sake you have been crumbling since the words, I do.”

Naruto was exhausted and mad, he was taking out his pain on Sasuke when all he did was give a shit about him, something he didn’t have with Hinata. How could he be treating Sasuke like this?

“I know I’m sorry Sasuke, I was out of line, forgive me?”

“Hmph”.

Sasuke potted whilst crossing his arms in frustration, but his breathing had seemed to simmer down to normal capacity.

“I just wish I could see my kids again Sasuke.”

“And you will, in time, if you really want you could go barging in right now, it’s your house after all. But wait one more week, I promise it will be okay.”

Naruto looked at crimson eyes which still seemed a tad pissed off and put his faith in them. If those eyes, warm lips and hands would lead him to salvation, he would follow them till the ends of the earth.

“Okay Sasuke.”

“Bed?”

“Hm, yer okay.”

-1 week later-

“I’m nervous Sasuke.”

Sasuke placed a loving hand on Naruto’s shoulder, reassuring him that it will be okay.

“Huh…okay, let’s go.”

Naruto raised his hand, lingering for a few moments in anticipation before knocking three times on the door.

Silence, torturing silence. And then, noise. Food steps coming closer and closer, each creek of the wooden floor becoming louder, echoing in Naruto’s ears. Each creek striking more and more fear into his already flustered heart.

“Naruto, Sasuke… Thank you for coming, we have the house to ourselves so be comfortable.”

Naruto and Sasuke shared a small glance of suspension and fear, but nothing could have prepared them for what they would hear in the next hour. They followed Hinata into the house. They were hit by the scent of fresh baked cookies and rich coffee beans, a welcoming house full of life and colour.

Sasuke wasn’t moved by the homely feel of the place, his defences where still up and ready to jump at any time to protect Naruto from crumbling once again because of this woman.

“Hinata cut to the chase, why did you tell Naruto to come today and pre-warning I’m not afraid to fight a girl.”

Hinata looked up at Sasuke with wide eyes, but in 2 seconds she was laughing hysterically pushing tears aside.

“Sasuke trust me I don’t want to fight you, I actually called you over to apologize, have a seat and I can explain.”

Naruto and Sasuke were hesitant but ultimately complied with her. Once everyone was seated and served cookies and coffee Hinata let out a long sigh.

“So… I wanted to explain what happened to me that night and why I reacted so terribly.” Hinata tossed her dark hair away from her face, she sipped on the coffee slowly as if trying to manifest this conversion in her head, struggling to find a starting point to her plea.

“Look I have nothing against you two, but I was really drunk and I was really upset… after Naruto left, I was so lonely and I realized I had let go of someone really special… I was being selfish.”

Naruto was shocked he didn’t know what to think anymore, last week Hinata was being…well, a bitch.

“But Hinata you said all those things, about me and Sasuke...?”

Hinata stood up angrily.

“You don’t think what I said to you hasn’t haunted my mind this entire week? It took me so long to even get the courage to ask you over.” Tears filled Hinata eyes as she shacked furiously in place.

“Sasuke, I’m sorry, I truly am. I was jealous, I was selfish. Me and Naruto were miserable together, I know that better than anyone else, then why… why did I want him back again?”

Sasuke didn’t looked phased, he just calmly looked at her with a stone-cold expression plastered on his face, whilst Naruto on the other hand seemed like he was about to go into cardiac arrest.

“Hinata, you properly realized what I great human being Naruto is and started freaking out about what you were going to do without him in your life, let me recommend something for you.”

Naruto looked at him with pissed off eyes.

“Sasuke don’t, Hinata has been through a lot as well.”

“Why are you defending her…still? After the shit she pulled last week, after that disaster of a marriage?”

Sasuke stood up from his chair, scraping the wood in the process from sheer force.

Hinata put up her hand towards Naruto to shut him up.

“No, I can take it. What is it Sasuke?”

“Well Hinata you have been a mom for a long time and let’s not sugar coat it… you have been living off Naruto for many years, with him out of the picture you were stressed about who you would be… The wife of the Hokage is no more and let’s not forget if Naruto wasn’t nice enough to let you keep this house you would also be homeless. So, I guess this is why you are stressing out… my advice is to find something your good at and start working again, find a passion or something and stop living in Naruto’s dam shadow, be your own fucking person.”

Sasuke took in a deep breath and glanced over at Naruto who was absolutely shocked. His jaw hitting the floor and eyes widened in disbelief. Hinata was looking down towards her coffee, a face full of sadness and annoyance.

“It pisses me off to say this… but Sasuke is right.”

“Hinata no, don’t say that.”

“Sasuke is right Naruto, you can’t be defending me for the rest of my life, protecting me from every little thing. I guess I needed to hear that… thanks Sasuke.”

“Don’t worry, blatant truths are my specialty.”

Sasuke looked at Naruto and grimaced, Naruto still didn’t know what he was feeling. His face was as white as a ghost and his expression may as well looked like he saw one as well.

Naruto was used to being the one that had to bend, to accommodate. Did Sasuke just make Hinata change…? Did she really just say that… that she was wrong? Nothing was making sense to Naruto’s brain, he was not used to this at all.

“Naruto, we should go soon.”

Sasuke was walking over to Naruto, bringing his slender hands forward to reach for Naruto and pull him up before Hinata stopped Sasuke, laying one defiant hand on Sasuke’s shoulder.

“Please, let me fix this? I feel like Naruto hasn’t forgiven me yet.”

Sasuke’s eyebrow rose in annoyance, his shoulder tensing in frustration.

Naruto got up still in utter confusion.

“Um Hinata, thank you. I promise it will be okay in time okay, when…” Naruto stopped mid-sentence.

“When what Naruto? Tell me!” Hinata’s eyes turned desperate for restitution, for forgiveness. She needed it, she had to hear it if she was going to survive the guilt that was eating her from the inside out.

“When can I tell the kids about me and Sasuke?”

-Silence-

The room rang quiet, the floorboards making more noise than any living creature in the room.

“Oh, well… I guess whenever you’re ready, but…”

Sasuke and Naruto now both tensed with anticipation, what was Hinata going to say? Did they already know…

“Can I please be a part of it, I want to show to you guys I support you two, so can I help as well?”

Naruto looked at Sasuke with absolute shook, a wave of relief washing off his face. Sasuke also had a slight glint of relief in his eyes but he was much harder to read unlike Naruto who was practically crying from happiness.

Naruto moved towards Hinata, taking her into a tight embrace.

“Thank you Hinata.”

-

The two ex-lovers smiled and wiped away tears that escaped their eyes.

Sasuke was happy for Naruto, unbelievably happy for him. And in that moment, it hit him, he had never been so invested and joyous for someone else… he was falling for this man so quickly it was nearly terrifying how Naruto could evoke so much emotion in him, but he knew he would never replace this, never in a million years.

-

Naruto woke up different, much different. He felt as light as air, like he slept on a bed of clouds or something like candy floss. He tugged out of the blankets stretching each muscle whilst nearly melting off the bed and gently landing on the cold floor which was weirdly refreshing. He looked down towards Sasuke who was still peacefully sleeping, his hair falling on his lips, hands softly cupped near his white pillow which cradled like beautiful face, so at peace.

Naruto smiled and walked out, going straight for his daily shower.

The water was gloriously warm it slowly washed away everything that had happened, revealing a different Naruto. He walked out of that shower, changed, lighter and new.

His skin glowed, it radiated like golden sand on an isolated beach, his freckles danced softly across his masculine body, he was more painting than person at this point. The perfection that was the man who walked out the shower was no mere human but more a god finally at peace.

Naruto walked to the kitchen, surprised Sasuke hadn’t woken up yet, his curious mind had him double and triple checking the room to see if he had finally woken up.

He toasted some bread and started to heat up some coffee. He took a bite of his toast and sipped on the steaming coffee, it all went down happily making his stomach dance in joy. Everything was different, for some reason the coffee tasted sweeter, the air sweeter, his body lighter.

Naruto finished his breakfast, leaving the plates in the sink for later. He walked over to the room, slowly looking in to see a sleeping Sasuke. He curiously looked at Sasuke, questioning the absolute impossible.

“Sasuke never sleeps in…”

Naruto started to walk forward ready to wake his boyfriend, but before his fingers could touch warm skin he retracted. He walked out and decided to let him keep sleeping, after all he felt strong enough to walk out that door, into the world alone.

-

Naruto walked out of his new house, a beautiful little brick house on the outer area of the village, near the forest a beautiful little house with many small animals crawling all over. He loved this new area, this new house, this new feeling.

This was one of the first times Naruto was going to work without Sasuke, it was widely strange but he felt strong enough to not need him. He felt for the first time in so long that he could stand on his own two feet and feel strong, secure and happy.

He had never felt so refreshed and alive. He practically skipped to work, smiling at each villager that passed by.

Naruto picked up some apples to nibble on at work, talking a little bit to the merchant, who was widely inquisitive about the new merchants coming in from other villagers.

Naruto reassured him that Konoha Merchants would not be affected by the changes to occur, that they would actually profit from this decision. The merchant sceptically looked at Naruto but took out his hand to shake Naruto’s and told him he believed in Naruto and his choice. The merchant even threw in some extra apples for free as a gift for Naruto.

Naruto happily accepted and was on his way to work.

-

Naruto walked into his room, the paper work seeming less intrusive in his room, the atmosphere clean and welcoming. The sunlight coming in from his window welcomed him in, pulling him forward to his seat.

“No Sasuke?”

“Oh Kakashi, nah I let him sleep in.”

“Tch, why not me too?”

Naruto smiled brightly, chuckling lightly at Kakashi’s comment.  
“One-day Kakashi if you work harder then maybe, just maybe, I will give you half a day off.”

“So, either something really good happened or Sasuke is mystical in bed for you to be in such a good mood?”

“Yeah something amazing happened yesterday, but we have work to do Kakashi, don’t think changing the subject will let you off.”

“Dam”

-10.30 am

Sasuke ran into the room bashing down a pile of paper work Naruto had neatly stacked together.

“Your cleaning that up” Naruto said whilst lovingly smiling at Sasuke from his desk.

“I’m so sorry I’m so late, why didn’t you wake me up?”

“Yeah why didn’t you wake him up?” Kakashi said sarcastically from his corner.

“I wanted to let you sleep, plus you looked way too cute to wake up.”

“Pff, I would have woken him up with a brick.”

“Oh, hush sexually frustrated grandpa” Naruto mocked whilst standing up from his chair.

Naruto walked over to Sasuke and took him into a deep kiss, long enough for Kakashi to start making gaging noises in the background.

Sasuke was still a tad flustered from the sprint, but he was soon soothed into Naruto’s embrace. Something about his beating heart, his hugs and his scent just calms Sasuke in seconds. By the time Naruto let go of Sasuke he was fully composed and ready for some paper work.

“As I said Kakashi it was a good day yesterday.”

“Honestly what the fuck happened? Or do you have some magical sexual powers Sasuke?”

Naruto ignored Kakashi by taking Sasuke into another deep kiss.

-

7 pm

The day was drawing to an end, a perfect day for Naruto, work went so well, everything falling into place smoothly. Kakashi, Sasuke and himself had worked throughout the day without a break, but it hadn’t seemed draining to Naruto he was still wide awake filled to the brim with energy, he was so deliriously happy, he had never felt so alive.

Naruto stacked the last papers into their files whilst Sasuke and Kakashi teased each other on the opposite side of the room. Naruto looked at the last piece of paper that was in the room, he packed it away neatly in the file named ‘A’. He closed the cabinet and let out a deep breath and smiled.

He turned around to look at the room, it was empty, actually empty, everything was done. He couldn’t believe it after months of being under so much pressure he was done. Naruto could feel a small tear escapes his eye, which he quickly wiped away.

He let out a happy and accomplished sigh, walking slowly over to Kakashi and Sasuke.

“Hey guys let’s go out to celebrate, we finally after months have finished every paper in this room.”

Kakashi looked at him with questioning eyes.

“Fine…Ille pay.”

“Wahoo!”

“You would think we was broke and homeless” Sasuke said whilst rolling his eyes.

“You would think you had your job because you were talented but in reality, you only got here by sucking dick” Kakashi proclaimed back in annoyance.

“Oh, burn Sasuke, even I can’t save you from that, that was good Kakashi.”

Naruto high fived Kakashi whilst walking out the door, whilst Sasuke stayed behind literally engulfed in flames, preparing to kick both of their asses.

-

Sasuke, Naruto and Kakashi walked out the room laughing and smiling. Joyous and proud energy literally seeped off their bodies like rays of sunshine. There boisterous energy followed them everywhere they went, infecting others as they went along. Soon enough they lead a group of friends to the bar to celebrate a night of drinks and laughs.

 


	16. It's time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto and Sasuke both have wives and children in Konoha. One drunken reunion gets a bit out of hand, and Naruto drunkenly accepts to recreate a kiss that happened long ago. This kiss starts a chain reaction, which leads to a confession which has been held for many years.  
> -Trying to stay as true to the series, so N/H and S/S are already canon :(. But there will be twist and turns that leads to a different ending

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Don't read it if you don't like the Naru/Sasu pairing.

Sasuke walked in first to the bar, going straight up the one of the waiters.

“Do you think you can fit in… uhh, like 50 people, because I think the whole town has followed us here?”

The waiter looked over Sasuke’s shoulder and saw a line of people that went out the door, they were all chatting and laughing and ready to spend a night celebrating with Naruto.

“Well you are in luck, we are very empty tonight so there is only 3 people in at the moment. We were expecting it to get much busier later on, but seeming as its for Naruto I will just shut the bar from the outside and you can have the whole place to yourselves… sound good?”

Sasuke looked at her with deep gratitude.

“Thank you so much, apparently dinner turned out to be a party with basically everyone Naruto knows.”

The waiter laughed, raising her hands to her lips shyly.

“Anything for the Hokage and the Hokage’s advisor.”

Sasuke smirked and called Naruto over with one hand.

“So, they are kind enough to give us the whole place and they are going to shut it off for anyone else.”

Naruto smiled widely, “Oh they don’t need to shut the whole place, tell them to leave it open, the more the merrier.”

Naruto went back to talking to a couple of villagers, who were fawning over his large muscles. Sasuke chuckled lightly looking at him shining brightly in the midst of gushing women, he was obviously loving all the attention he was receiving and it was so amusing seeing him so giggly.

Sasuke turned around to find the waiter, he waved her over and notified her to leave the place open and to alert anyone who came into the bar that they were welcome to join Naruto’s celebrations.

She smiled and waved everyone through, getting everyone seated and comfortable. She then proceeded to take orders and in a few minutes, she was back with trays full of beers, wines, cocktails and shots.

-

*30 minutes after arriving into the bar*

Sasuke was seated right next to Naruto, whilst Kakashi sat on the other side of Sasuke. The rest of the table was made up of long-time friends from all over the village. Soon enough word of their ‘tiny party’ in the bar was circulating all over town and the bar started to get busier and busier with everyone who wanted to come celebrate with their Hokage.

After an hour close friends started arriving, first Kiba then Shikamaru closely followed by Ino and Lee.

-

Kiba tapped Sasuke on the shoulder, “hey Sasuke so why weren’t we initially invited to the party huh?”

“Don’t blame me, this was meant to be a small celebratory dinner with just me, Naruto and Kakashi.”

“What was the initial celebration for?”

“Naruto finally got through all the paper work, so I guess he wanted to celebrate being paper free.” Sasuke raised his shoulder in an expression that signified he basically had nothing to do with it and that it was all Naruto’s crazy idea.

“Shame we don’t have the whole crew here, we could announce some special news” Kiba said whilst winking and nudging Sasuke.

Sasuke gave him a death stare that could literally cause him to turn into stone, like his eyes magically just turned into medusa’s.

“Okay, okay, I won’t say anything.” Kiba put his hands up in defense to Sasuke intense death stare, he slowly backed away and ran over to talk to Shikamaru before he was actually disintegrated on the spot.

As much as Sasuke and Naruto were becoming public with their relationship, only a few people knew about them which at this point was about 10 people. Recently Sasuke had heard a couple of rumours of them being gay, so it defiantly was started to get out there, but nobody dared to ask Sasuke, mostly because he was scary as shit to talk to. And nobody had asked Naruto because he was always super busy and nobody wanted to distract his Hokage duties to ask a stupid question.

Most of the villagers who heard about Sasuke and Naruto through others thought it was just rumours, even though many of them said they wouldn’t be shocked because they were always together.

Due to the rumours and speculations about their relationship Sasuke decided to not say anything to anyone, not only because it was non-off their business, but mostly because he thought they should hear it from Naruto. He is the one with more responsibility on his shoulders and Sasuke wasn’t sure if Naruto was ready to fully come out to everyone. He believed it wasn’t his place to tell people so he decided to stay quit and say nothing.

-

*1 hour later*

Most of the villagers and elders had left at this point, most were either too tired to stay out late or had to go and take care of children. But every single one of them had congratulated Naruto on his achievements and wished him luck with further Hokage duties.  The bar was now only filled with close friends, Ino, Sai, Lee, Sakura, Tamaki and Kiba sat opposite to Nauto whilst Kakashi, Sasuke, Iruka and Tsunade sat on his side. Shikamaru, Choji, tenten, Temari, Karui and Shino were standing near the bar talking and ordering new drinks. The only one missing was Hinata.

Naruto looked around at his long-time friends, he felt as though every single one of them was family to him, but it just felt wrong not having Hinata. She was always a part of the group and to not have her there celebrating felt wrong to him.

“Hey Sasuke… Ille be back soon okay?”

Sasuke looked at Naruto with questioning eyes. He placed a hand on his shoulder quickly to stop him from leaving.

“Naruto where are you going?”

He looked at Sasuke lovingly, “I think it’s time we tell the rest of this bunch about us, but… I don’t want to do it without Hinata being here, so I’m going to go get her.”

Sasuke let go of Naruto, he looked down towards the table unsure what to say.

“Are you sure you’re ready?” Sasuke had no idea why he was so scared to ask, Naruto wasn’t going to abandon him now, regret this life with him and leave?

“I’m sure. Also, I want to tell my children Sasuke, but I think its best that you’re not there for that, just in case they need some space to think about it.”

“I understand. Don’t take too long, if you’re not back in an hour and a half I will start hunting your ass down.”

Naruto chuckled lightly whilst messing around with Sasuke’s hair. “You will be fine, you have Kakashi to keep you company.”

“Oh great” Sasuke said with the least amount of energy humanly possible.

Kakashi raised his middle finger to Sasuke’s face and drunkenly blurted curse words to him.

“My tab is open Sasuke don’t abuse it, actually let me be clearer make sure Kakashi doesn’t abuse it.”

Sasuke smiled evilly “oh don’t worry Ille watch over him.”

-

Naruto walked out of the bar and was hit with chilling winds, he left his jacket in his office and was too lazy to get it, so he started walking towards his old house in the cold. He started shivering a little bit from the piercing winds so he decided to get on top of one of the roofs and quickly jump over to his old place.

He was there in a few minutes, and was beating down the door so he could escape the cold.

The door opened quickly. Hinata stood on the other side in her warm pajamas.

“Naruto? Come in, get out of that cold.”

Naruto shivered frantically whilst walking inside and shook off the rain from his hair, he placed his shoes near the entrance and walked into a warm and welcoming house.

“What are you doing here?”

“Did you not hear that everyone was at the bar tonight?”

“Oh… I did hear, but I didn’t think you were ready to see me, and to be honest I’m still really embarrassed to see Sasuke and Sakura after that flop of a night we all had together.”

“But Hinata it’s not the same without you, I can’t… I won’t stand not being close to you. Just because we are divorced doesn’t mean I don’t value our friendship. You mean a lot to me and I really want you to come, plus.. I am finally ready to tell everyone about me and Sasuke and that’s including the kids.”

Hinata’s eyes widened, she was clearly shocked and processing this large amount of information. She attempted to speak but no words seemed to come out.

“That’s why I really want you to come, because I can’t do it without your support… I need you Hinata. As a friend.”

“You need me?” Hinata’s eyes softened as she smiled lightly at Naruto. Their eyes connected and they both felt a warm feeling bubble within themselves.

“Of course, Naruto I told you I would support you and I meant it. But what are you going to say to the kids, will you tell them now? And also, I have no one to look after the kids if I go with you to the bar.”

“That’s okay I talked to Sakura before leaving she has a baby sitter taking care of Sarada whilst she’s out with us, she told me she was fine with us bringing Boruto and Himawari over as well. And if it’s okay with you I would like to tell them tonight, I am just so sick of hiding it, I want everyone to know, because, well…I love him.”

Hinata came forward and gave Naruto a tight hug, “I am so happy for you Naruto, now let’s go do this.”

Naruto smiled brightly at Hinata looking down at her whilst he hugged her back. He had never felt so at peace, hugging Hinata now in this moment had more feeling and emotion in it than it ever did when they were together as a couple. Because this time he knew all she wanted was for him to be happy, truly happy.

“Okay let’s go.”

-

Hinata knocked on Boruto’s door to see if he was awake, she walked in to see him playing with Himawari on his bed. They both smiled when Naruto walked in, running over and jumping on him to bear hug him.

“Daddy! You aren’t meant to come for another 2 days, what are you doing here?”

Naruto smiled at Himawari whilst brushing the top of her hair. “Questions already?” Naruto proclaimed whilst laughing.

“Dad can we spar this weekend? I have been practicing a lot and I think my clone jutsu is better than yours now!”

“Of course we can Boruto, but if you say your that good I won’t go easy on you.”

“Even if you went all out I will still beat you!”

Hinata chuckled, “I don’t think you will be beating your dad anytime soon.” Hinata walked over and picked up Himawari into a big kiss whilst cradling her on her hip.

“Alright you two enough attacking your dad with questions we have something very serious to talk to you about and this might be very difficult for you to understand but your father wants you to know so, sit down and listen to what he has to say, okay?”

Himawari and Boruto could sense the change in mood and immediately went to sit down on the edge of the bed, both of them looked at Naruto with concerned eyes.

Naruto stood up and coughed loudly, he couldn’t mentally comprehend where the hell he should start with this conversion. He walked over to the chair which was placed in the corner of Boruto’s room, he offered it first to Hinata, but as soon as she declined he sat down.

“Well kids, okay…”

He was breathing heavily and sweating from the amount of stress he felt to make sure they understand what he was trying to say, also the anticipation of their reactions was causing him to over worry once again.

Hinata walked over and placed a loving hand on his shoulder, “don’t worry Naruto, take your time.”

“Thank you Hinata, didn’t think it would be this hard to say… Kids do you remember when we went into town once during the summer festival and you saw two girls kissing and you asked me why they were kissing?” Both of them nodded their heads in remembrance.

“Well do you remember what I said?”

Himawari looked at Naruto with confusion as to where this conversation was going.

“Didn’t you say they were lesbian dad? And that they loved each other just like you did mum… well used to at least.”

Naruto chuckled due to Bourto’s sass, “your right Boruto, and very funny.”

“Well in fact there is more than just lesbians.”

“Oh, I know I know!” Himawari proclaimed proudly. “One of my friends said she has a cousin in the sand village with two gay dads, that’s when two daddy’s love each other right daddy?”

Naruto smiled widely “yes Himawari that’s exactly right.” He was feeling a little bit less stress now that he knew both of them at least knew the term ‘gay’.

“Well guys me and your mum want you to know that you will met many people in your life some will be from a different place than you, they may like the same gender as themselves or they might have different skin colours but you should never ever judge someone for that okay?”

“Dad we know, what the hell is the point of this lecture, you have already given it to us like 3 years ago?”

“Language Boruto”, Hinata said angrily.

“Sorry mum.”

Naruto looked at his hands which were held in a tight fist due to being extremely nervous.

“Well there is one more which you may not have heard off, bisexuality.”

“Oh, what’s that daddy?” Himawari asked in confusion whilst reaching for her teddy bear.

Boruto looked over to Himawari and got her teddy which was a bit far for her to reach, he passed her the teddy and started explaining. “Himawari that’s when a person likes the same gender as them self and also the gender opposite to themselves, so for example if teddy is a boy and if he was bisexual he will like boy and girl teddys.”

“Oh” Himawari said with wide eyes.

“That’s exactly right Boruto” Naruto said whilst smiling at his son. “How do you know so much already?”

“Dad I’m not a kid anymore, I go to school, you hear a lot of things.”

“Sadly, you are growing up” Naruto said whilst nodded his head in agreement to Boruto’s statement.

“So, what’s the point of this conversation again?” Boruto asked for the second time.

“Well, it turns out that I am bisexuality.”

Both of the kids looked at him with wide eyes, Himawari more so.

“Do you kids care?” Naruto asked whilst also frantically looking at both of them for any reaction.

Boruto shook his head left and right but didn’t say anything for a couple of minutes, whilst Himawari looked like she was having an outer body experience.

“So, so, so… daddy likes other daddys and mummys?”

Hinata chuckled behind Naruto, “he likes girls and boys Himawari not just mummys and daddys.”

Himawari looked so confused. She raised her teddy and looked at it as if this teddy had all the answers.

“So, kids… I know it’s a lot to take in, but what do you think?”

“Dad I don’t really care, I mean if you still going to spar with me and go full out then I am okay.”

“I am fine daddy you can date whoever you want, teddy and I approve. But adults only kiss, right? Because I don’t think I want to be bisexual like you daddy because I don’t want to kiss anyone, I don’t have to go kiss anyone do I daddy?”

Naruto and Hinata both started laughing loudly, trying there absolute hardest to not start crying from how hilarious Himawari was being. Naruto whipped away a tear from laughter, “no Himawari you don’t need to kiss anyone, and yes only kissing young lady.”

Boruto stood up and gave his dad a hug and then started heading back to the bed, before he jumped up he looked at Naruto

“So, dad you finally going to tell us who you are dating?”

Naruto looked at him with a shocked expression, he looked at Hinata who also had the same look on her face.

“How did you…”

“Well you wouldn’t have started giving us a sexuality speech if you weren’t dating a guy, so I know that at least, now all I have to guess is who.”  

“Boruto have I ever said you are getting way too smart for your age?”

“You may have mentioned it. Now stop delaying and tell us.”

“Is there more news daddy?” Himawari questioned with innocent loving eyes.

“Yes, I am dating someone, I know all of this is new and whenever you are ready I would love for you guys to hang out with me and my new partner…”

“Go on dad its fine.”

Naruto looked at Boruto with thankful eyes, he breathed slowly.

“I am now living with and dating your uncle Sasuke.”

-silence-

Naruto couldn’t look up he just stared at the wooden floor, breathing slowly. He started to look up at his children who both had the same faces as they did two seconds before.

“You aren’t shocked?”

“Nope, to be honest that’s exactly who I thought it was going to be, you guys are always together and now I know why, ew.”

“Boruto be nicer this is really hard for your dad.”

“Okay mum, sorry dad, I meant… no ew?”

Naruto laughed and walked over and punched his son lightly on the shoulder, “gosh you are going to be one of those annoying teen kids, aren’t you? I would say you are a smart a… but I can’t because your sister is here.”

Boruto laughed back at Naruto whilst getting up and hugging him. “I am glad its uncle Sasuke, he is really tough and is the only person who actually spars with me properly.”

Naruto kissed Boruto on the head whilst he squirmed to get out of his hugs and kisses. He then went to see how much damage control he had to do with Himawari.

“What about you princess, what do you think about me and Uncle Sasuke being together?”

Himawari looked at him like she saw a ghost “daddy, I don’t get it? So, you like Uncle Sasuke?”

“Yep”

“And you live with him?”

“Yep”

“Does that mean I can’t see you anymore?”

“No sweaty, nothing is going to change, it just means when you come to my new house uncle Sasuke will always be there.

“Can I stay with you forever?”

“Haha, you can stay with me as long as you want, but don’t forget mummy will want to see you too.”

Himawari looked at Naruto still confused.

“So, do you kiss Uncle Sasuke?”

“Yes, is that okay with you?”

“Kisses… but daddy kissing is gross why would you do that, you will get cooties?”

“Because if you love someone and they love you back you kiss them.”

“Is that why you give me kisses?”

“Yes, because I love you, don’t you love me as well?”

“Yes Daddy.” Himawari stood up and gave Naruto 3 kisses on the forehead, she jumped into his arms and didn’t let go, hanging from his neck like a monkey.

“So, everyone is happy?”

Everyone in the room yelled yes and started laughing.

“Alright everyone, you two are off to a sleep over with Sarada” Hinata said whilst hurrying them to out the room to start packing bags.

“Talking about Sarada Boruto, do you want to kiss her?” Naruto winked at him

“Dad don’t start or I will kill you, we are just friends.”

Hinata yelled from the other side of the house whilst packing Himawari’s bag, “SURE JUST FRIENDS” she coughed sarcastically in the background.

“This house used to be normal.”

“Yer, yer, now get your bag so we can take you to your girlfriends.”

“Oh my gowsh, dad!”


	17. At peace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto and Sasuke both have wives and children in Konoha. One drunken reunion gets a bit out of hand, and Naruto drunkenly accepts to recreate a kiss that happened long ago. This kiss starts a chain reaction, which leads to a confession which has been held for many years.
> 
> -Trying to stay as true to the series, so N/H and S/S are already canon :(. But there will be twist and turns that leads to a different ending

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Don't read it if you don't like the Naru/Sasu pairing.

Naruto and Hinata said good bye to Boruto and Himawari and thanked the baby sitter for taking care of their kids as well. Naruto closed the door and let out a small sigh whilst smiling.

“What are you smiling about?”

Naruto looked into Hinata’s creamy eyes, smiling even more as she looked happily at Naruto.

“I’m just happy you know, everything I have ever wanted is falling into place… I don’t think I have ever felt so dam happy Hinata. And Sasuke, I can’t even explain the way I feel about him.”

Hinata looked away shyly, still smiling. “I’m so glad Naruto, I have noticed how much you have changed and I’m so glad for you, I have never seen you so at peace before.”

“I don’t think I ever felt so at peace before.”

Naruto smiled widely and brought Hinata into a tight hug, he then wrapped a friendly arm around her shoulders pushing her forward.

“Come on slow poke, time to tell the gang that I finally decided to make that man, my man.”

Hinata laughed whilst walking forwards quickly.

-

The wind was strong but nothing could stop Naruto from moving forward, he had his eye on the future and he was never going to take a step back again.

-

*The pub*

Naruto was hit with a roar of cheers when he came back with Hinata. Sakura walked over to them with excitement literally oozing out of her.

“Hinata! I am so glad you could come.”

“Sakura, hi. I am so sorry about last time we hanged out, I ruined it for everyone.”

“No! Please, don’t be upset, it’s in the past. Now come have a few drinks with us.”

Hinata compiled and went with Sakura, she looked back at Naruto and smiled. She mouthed silently, ‘good luck’.

Naruto looked around to find Sasuke, who was chatting to Shikamaru near the bar. He walked forward and felt his chest contract heavily. He couldn’t believe he still got nervous about announcing his relationship to others. At this point he had done it over 5 times but that unsettling fear of rejection and disgust from others still haunts him. But he refused to live a life where he couldn’t publicly show his affections to that man, he was his everything, his life source and he wanted everyone to know that.

Plus, it is really hard explaining to anyone who visits him at his new house why Sasuke is living with him.

“Hey Shikamaru, is it okay if I steal Sasuke away from you?”

Shikamaru rose an eyebrow and looked at him sheepishly, “go for it man.” Shikamaru tapped Naruto’s shoulder in comfort, as if he knew what he was about to do. Naruto turned around to see Shikamaru smiling cheekily whilst raising a class to him.

Naruto looked at him with a fake angry expression, realizing off course Shikamaru knew. Not only is the man a genius and would have probably guessed it on his own, he also besides Kakashi was the only person who aided Naruto a lot with Hokage duties so, he would have defiantly noticed Sasuke’s constant presence in the room.

“Babe, are you ready to tell everyone?”

Sasuke looked at Naruto with slurred loving eyes, “whenever you are honey bear.”

“Honey bear? The hell? Are you drunk?”

Sasuke hiccupped “no, your drunk.”

Naruto rolled his eyes in mild annoyance, he contemplated telling the group another day, maybe when Sasuke was a tad soberer. But then he thought, the whole team getting together is never going to happen for a very long time, and he just wasn’t ready to hide this anymore.

“Okay drunko, let’s do it.”

“Yas, I will follow you, onwards captain, I would follow you to the ends of the earth.”

Naruto realized as he walked forwards towards the large table everyone was sitting at, that this was the first time he had seen Sasuke properly drunk. Every other time Naruto was also very smashed so he couldn’t remember a thing the next day, or Sasuke just got to a mild tipsy stage so he never loosed his cool and mysterious composure. But the Sasuke he was dealing with right now was absolutely trashed and Naruto was finding his responses hilarious.

“Hey Sasuke, are you the one who leaves the laundry outside?”

“Maybe, or it could be the tiny pixies that come and raid our house.”

“By any chance are any of these tiny pixies called Sasuke?”

“I can neither confirm nor deny.”

Naruto laughed at Sasuke’s stupid answers, he tried to get more information out of drunk Sasuke before sitting him down. But unfortunately, even being this drunk he wouldn’t tell Naruto any of his secrets.

-

Naruto took his glass of champagne that he ordered and filled everyone’s glass to the brim. As he went around filling each individual glass, then he noticed everyone was eyeing him curiously waiting for what the news was.

He walked over to Sasuke filling his glass last, as soon as each person was supplied with champagne he stood up and took his glass filled with golden bubbling champagne.

“Hey everyone.”

A couple of them started cheering drunkenly, Kiba accompanied the yelling with some loud whistling.

Naruto chuckled at his drunk friend’s response.

“So, I know a few of you have already guessed I had something to announce today… and I would like to tell you all…

Naruto struggled to find the words which would describe to his friends what he felt towards the man to his right, this angel, this slice of heaven, this person who made him feel whole again.

“First of all, I would like to say why I felt like I had to tell you guys. To me you guys are my family, I grew up alone and slowly as I grew I gained new family members. Every single one of you has a special place in my heart, and I could never be where I am without the help of all of you.”

Tsunade started tearing up as did Hinata and Sakura.

Sakura whipped away a small tear that escaped her eye “gosh Naruto, nobody told me this would be a water works speech.”

Naruto lovingly smiled, shining brightly as he watched Sakura smile at him with water filled eyes.

“Anyways Ille continue so I don’t start a crying show, but I realized a while back, that I wasn’t happy, I hadn’t found peace. And I am glad to stand here today and say to my family, that I have finally after years and years of pining over the same person have found my peace.”

Everyone started smiling and laughing. All eyes were on Sasuke, because everyone already knew it was coming.

“So, I would like to thank Sakura and Ino for being really meddlesome last time we went out, but without that reminder of our first kiss we would never be here, so guys proud to announce that yes, finally me and Sasuke are officially together.”

Naruto let out a long sigh whilst smiling widely at the group, Sasuke looked up at him with all the love and affection one could give through eye contact alone. The whole group started cheering and yelling in support. A lot of the people started yelling, ‘finally, ‘took you like 20 years’.

Hinata stood up, and the whole group went silent. Naruto’s heart stopped, he looked at her across the table with stress and concern. A feeling of worry washing over him again, like last time.

“I would like to say...” The room was so quit that the crickets outside sounded like they were on some speaker system and the wind swirling by made more noise than anyone in the room.

“I would like to say congratulations to Naruto, I know this man so well and I have never been so happy for him. He is no longer the person he once was, the Hokage we see today is a man of peace, harmony and happiness. And I would personally like to wish him all the luck with his new journey with his new partner Sasuke. Cheers.”

Hinata raised her glass and was followed by everyone else in the room, she had happy tears falling down her cheeks and her smile reached each corner of her face.

Sakura got up and placed a loving hand across her shoulder, she raised her glass high in the air.

“To Naruto and Sasuke,”

Everyone followed belting out the same words and then everyone took a drink of their bubbling champagne.

Naruto looked at Sasuke who had tears falling down his cheek, he quickly whipped it off to try and maintain his macho persona.

Naruto sat down next to Sasuke looking lovingly into his crimson eyes. “You know I saw that, right?”

Sasuke looked at him evilly, “if you tell anyone I will kill you.”

“Your secret is safe with me your highness of darkness.”

Both of them chuckled at each other’s stupidness.

And in that moment, Naruto was hit with strong deja vu. He remembered this, sitting across from Sasuke, drinking alcohol looking into his eyes, realizing how hauntingly beautiful this man was and how he was forced to kiss him as part of a drunken dare.

He remembered it like it was yesterday, the way the room became quiet, the way that everything around him felt like he had fallen into heaven, the glitter and twinkle of star light, the soft touch of his lips cradling Naruto’s into enteral bliss. He couldn’t be more thankful for that kiss, a kiss never forgotten.

Naruto was knocked out his day dreaming by the sound of clinking and clapping. He started to hear the group chanting; “kiss him”, “kiss him”, “kiss him.”

Naruto smiled at Sasuke whilst laughing at the same time.

“Will you do me this honour young maiden?”

Sasuke nodded whilst smiling so brightly at Naruto, a sight which made Naruto breathless every time.

Naruto leaned in closer so that he was only inches apart from Sasuke’s lips, he was hearing the blurred rumble of his friends chanting and clicking of their glasses in the background.

“I love you Sasuke.”

“I love you more.”

His lips touched Sasuke’s and then it began again just like it did before, the room became silent, everyone else had disappeared. It was just him and Sasuke. His lips euphoric on his own, so undeniably soft and perfect, curving and dipping into Naruto’s lips like some puzzle fitting together effortlessly. The way he felt in this moment was indescribable, he truly couldn’t believe how ecstatic he felt to be alive in this moment.

For once in his life, he would like to be no one else but himself, he was truly happy being Naruto, Hokage of the leaf village, father of two beautiful children and boyfriend of the love of his life Sasuke Uchiha.

Their lips parted but desperately wanted to return to each other, but Naruto had to remember that yes there was a bunch of people still sitting next to him.

-

He returned back to earth, hearing even louder chants and cheers. He could also see a couple of cameras and phones out obviously to record this moment for black mailing purposes.

“Hey Ino, I don’t think you can use that to blackmail me anymore, because after today everyone will know how lucky I am to have this hunk.”

Ino raspberried Naruto from across the table, giving him evil eyes.

“I know you guys are just so hot together, plus I’m making memories.”

-

Naruto stood up and told Sasuke to wait for just a moment, he went over to the waiter and whispered something into his ear, he quickly returned to Sasuke and stood patiently by his chair, waiting for something to happen.

“What did you ask the waiter?”

“Oh nothing.”

Sasuke looked at Naruto with widely questioning eyes.

Everyone else on the table were still sitting down and looking over to see what Naruto was up too.

Music started playing in the bar, a soft Spanish guitar could be heard.

“You asked them to put the song I learnt to play for you?”

“Yep, now my dear Sasuke, it is officially our song.”

Naruto bowed to Sasuke, doing some sort of curtsy, he extended a loving hand to Sasuke. Will you do me the honour of this dance?

Sasuke looked at Naruto with a shocked expression, he looked back at everyone who were cheering him to take Naruto’s hand. The girls were practically crying over how beautiful this whole scene was.

Sasuke looked back at Naruto who was still curtsying and took his hand cautiously.

“Naruto if I wasn’t this drunk I would kill you for ruining this evil macho vibe I have going on.”

Naruto took Sasukes’ hand, pulling him out of the chair and drawing him in nice and close to his own body, he started to chuckle softly. “I think your dark brooding ego can survive one night of romance.”

Sasuke smiled widely.

-

Both of the men swayed back and forth, Naruto’s hand was placed softly on Sasuke’s hip and Sasuke’s arms were tightly wrapped Naruto’s neck. Their foreheads touched each other’s and their eyes never wavered, each so consumed in each other’s warm embrace and gaze.

Sasuke took one of his hands and placed it in on Naruto’s cheek, igniting a fire on Naruto’s skin making him blush profusely. Sasuke stroked Naruto’s cheek slowly, making Naruto’s heart beat at such rapid speeds.

His chest raised and lowered at the same time as Sasuke, creating a unique rhythm that only they had created. Each sway to the soft music made their bodies get closer and closer. Each fibre and cell of their bodies no longer wishing to be alone.

Their skin, heart, lungs and minds no longer wished to be alone, they craved each other’s counterpart so desperately.

As the music started to end, Sasuke pulled Naruto into a deep kiss, no longer wanting to be apart. His tongue explored every inch of Naruto’s mouth and their bodies started to jump in pleasure that they finally separated that space between them.

Their hands moved up and down each other’s body, exploring every hill and curve. Their mouths moved in a furious attempt to bring their bodies closer to unify these two men as much as possible.

There romantic and lustful moment was cut short when Kiba started yelling ‘get a room’.

Naruto stepped aside from Sasuke and started laughing.

“Sorry! We forget you guys where here.”

Everyone started laughing and yelling.

-

_Naruto joined hands with Sasuke and walked back to the table, they enjoyed the rest of night with their friends drinking and laughing._

_-_

_Naruto was surrounded by the people he considered family, the Hokage was now officially at peace._


	18. Pancakes, kids and headaches

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto and Sasuke both have wives and children in Konoha. One drunken reunion gets a bit out of hand, and Naruto drunkenly accepts to recreate a kiss that happened long ago. This kiss starts a chain reaction, which leads to a confession which has been held for many years.
> 
> -Trying to stay as true to the series, so N/H and S/S are already canon :(. But there will be twist and turns that leads to a different ending.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Don't read it if you don't like the Naru/Sasu pairing.

Naruto opened his eyes to a bright room, sun beaming in from the windows, birds chirping loudly, echoing into his head and making it spiral continuously. He grunted out of the bed, feeling like the walls were slowly rippling backwards and forwards like the gentle waves of the sea. His skin felt numb and his stomach churned in agony from the accumulated alcohol. Naruto felt a hot burning sensation raise up in his gut, he was about to run to the bathroom before he was locked down in place.

The room seemed to quite everything slowing coming into focus as his breath and body calmed underneath porcelain arms which cradled his shaky body.

“Good morning.”

Naruto closed his eyes and smiled, he tilted his head down and kissed the hands beneath him, thanking them for stabilizing him. 

“Good morning teme.”

Naruto felt hot kisses on the back of his neck which melted onto his skin like honey, soothing his muscles, calming his spinning brain. 

“Do you also feel like shit?” Naruto asked in a quiet voice.

“Yep, but I think I'll be okay if we just stay like this.”

Naruto chuckled lightly whilst slowly brushing his fingers on Sasuke’s forearm. He felt Sasuke rest his head on Naruto’s bare back, slowly releasing hot breathes onto Naruto’s lower back making his skin shimmer and tingle in joy. 

“Stop breathing on my back, it tickles.”

“Tch, do you want me to die? I kind of need to breath to live.”

Naruto laughed loudly, “no baka, if you die so do I. And I have no intention of dying anytime soon, seeming as I just got you.”

“I think it is I, that finally got you.”

Naruto looked down at the floor, smiling widely, wondering how this simple act of endearment from his boyfriend could make it feel so happy, so sober, so awake?

“I can see you smiling.”

Naruto turned the smile into a fake pout, “no you didn’t.” Naruto turned around and pushed Sasuke down on the bed in protest.

“No! Naruto, I’m too drunk for this, I will literally barf on your face.”

Naruto proceeded to jump on top of a struggling Sasuke, he tickled all his weak spots and watched him wriggle underneath him, laughing at each new spot Naruto attempted to attack.

“Stop! Naruto, I will hurt you.”

Naruto stuck out his tongue at Sasuke in protest, he looked at him with all the love in the world. This man, this perfect man was his everything and he was so lucky to have him, be with him and love him.

-

_ Sasuke looked at Naruto, feeling his heartbeat against his chest furiously, attempting to escape into Naruto’s body. He looked up at this gorgeous man who’s golden hair dangled messily over his face and bright blue eyes, his smile so beautiful and loving, his sun kissed skin and tiny freckles making up this man who looked like an angel with the sun shining brightly behind him and illumination him against the rest of the world. _

_ - _

“Hey Sasuke?”

Sasuke’s deep black eyes stared into bright blue eyes, looking nearly hypnotized, “hm?”

“I love you.”

Sasuke looked away shyly, his cheeks flushing a soft pink, “I love you more.” He started to smile softly, hot liquid slowly accumulating in the rear edges of his eyes. 

Naruto bent down and laid soft kisses on the tears that escaped Sasuke’s eyes. 

“You are beautiful Sasuke, you know that?”

Sasuke gulped down on the hot ball of saliva that was accumulating in his thought, his rib cage hurt from containing his heart which no longer was beating but bashing on its edges to let it out, his lungs also felt hot and heavy, filling with something he wasn’t used too.

“Naruto, I will punch you if you continue.”

Naruto chuckled lightly whilst laying several more kisses around Sasuke's neck, “fine, only because I’m super hungry and want to get breakfast.”

Naruto jumped off Sasuke and rolled out of bed whilst nearing falling over due to the fact that he forgot he was still a tad hung over. 

-

_ Sasuke looked at his boyfriend struggling to recover from his near fall onto the ground and realised he was in trouble. He never expected to feel like this, so hopefully in love that he couldn’t even hide his feelings anymore. He was Sasuke Uchiha for God’s sake, he doesn’t do the sappy kind of love, then why? Why was this man so infectious, why couldn’t he hide the way he felt like he did everything else? Why is it that the mere thought of him leaving, dyeing or breaking up with him makes him feel so queasy? Why is it that he no longer cared about his own life, but only his? He would die, kill and suffer for years if it meant making him smile like that every day, making him happy, letting him be the joyous sunshine that he is. _

_ - _

*9.30 am*

Naruto finished piling on the last pancake onto the plate, he sliced some strawberries and bananas to go with them and finished it off with some maple syrup. He piled the plates on the table and started to make the coffee, he whistles to himself whilst he waited for the kettle to boil. 

He looked around at the prepared table and smiled to himself, he loved making breakfast for Sasuke on the weekends, it’s what got him through the week of work, knowing they get to spend the weekend together. Something about being with Sasuke in their new house, watching him enjoy a meal Naruto cooked in their pj’s made Naruto so overly happy. He didn’t know what the feeling was called. Happy? No, it was more than that. Warm? 

Naruto’s pondering was interrupted when the Kettle clinked to signify it was ready, he grabbed the kettle and poured them into the two mugs already set up on the table, which were filled with grinded coffee and sugar. 

He made sure everything was ready before happily skipping back into the room to tell Sasuke breakfast was ready. 

He peeked his head into the room, seeing Sasuke still collapsed onto the bed, looking mildly like death. Naruto laughed a little inside, Sasuke usually doesn’t get this drunk, so seeing him so hungover was also a new first for Naruto and it was quite funny to watch. 

“Sunshine it’s time to get up and have breakfast.”

Sasuke looked at Naruto with half lid eyes, “Naruto it’s okay, I'll just stay in bed, plus I don’t think I can stomach anything right now.” 

Naruto crossed his arms and pouted, “that’s not what I want to hear mister, plus food will make you feel better I promise.”

Sasuke grunted at Naruto. He found the edges of the bed covers with his left hand and threw them over himself in rebellion, “never, I’m not moving.”

Naruto smirked at the white lump on the bed, “fine if you’re not moving, I'll move you.”

Naruto walked over and grabbed the edge of the blanket and pulled it quickly off Sasuke so that he was fully visible.

“No! Naruto, I don’t have enough energy to fight back, please stop” Sasuke said in a high pitched whiny voice. 

Naruto just shook his head in disappointment whilst smiling. “Sorry but you are coming with me.” Naruto picked up Sasuke with his two hands, bridal style. 

Sasuke squirmed weakly in Naruto strong hands, “I hate you, I hope you know that.” 

Naruto smiled widely at him, “I know, but you need food.” 

Sasuke stopped squirming and started to flop in Naruto’s arms, a sad attempt to pretend to be dead. 

Naruto looked down at his pitiful boyfriend and just raised an eyebrow, he lifted Sasuke into the air quickly and caught him as he landed. Sasuke was soon awaken from his two second death.

“Fuck you teme.”

“Love you more sweetie pie” Naruto said with a huge guilty smile on his face. He placed his still grunting boyfriend on the chair which had in front of it a huge stack of fluffy pancakes on them which were still steaming and accompanied with the fresh fruit and maple syrup which Naruto had placed alongside them. 

Sasuke’s eyes lit up in excitement and his stomach grumbled in anticipation.

“See, you were hungry.” Naruto said boastfully as he circled back to his side of the table. 

Sasuke started to stuff his face with the pancakes whilst evilly looking at Naruto, “tch.”

Naruto looked at his boyfriend happily eating his pancakes with great joy. He loved this, he loved him, he loved all of it. 

-

*11 am* 

“Hey Sasuke…” Naruto said cautiously. 

“Hm?”

“Don’t you think we should go talk to Sarada? I mean, I talked to my kids about us, should you?”

Sasuke looked at him with a plan expression stamped on his face, “hm I guess so.”

Naruto gulped down on the steadily increasing burning sensation accumulating in his throat, afraid that the next words that would leave his mouth would not be well received, “Sasuke don’t bite me okay?”

Sasuke raised a curious eyebrow.

“Do you even love your kid?”

The room silenced out, heavy breathing from both counterparts could be heard but no one broke that intangible silence, that mild build of electricity slowly filling the room. 

“Dobe, I am not the same with my kids as you are yours, that’s just it, okay?”

Naruto started to get frustrated, feeling himself lose patience with Sasuke, “Teme, no. You didn’t even start seeing her until I literally pressured you for weeks. How can you say you love her? And the fact that you don’t ever want to go over there willingly is shit Sasuke.” Naruto prepared himself for the first proper fight they would have as a couple.

“Naruto its none of your fucking business how much I see her, plus you know I have never been one of the emotional, lovey dove kinds.”

Naruto’s fist clenched in, trying to calm the boiling liquid filling inside of him. “Sasuke, she is your daughter, end of fucking story. You cannot blame her, for your mistakes of trying to act the straight dude. She was not the cause of your marriage or divorce. But you have to face the fucking facts, that yes you were once married to Sakura and yes you did convince a daughter with her in some poor attempt to try and see if being straight was even mildly possible for you. For fuck sake Sasuke, for once in your life will you care about anyone who isn’t you?” 

Sasuke was starting to get mad, his eyebrows were sharply pointed down and his eyes seemed to glow a strange red and black mix. 

“I do care, about you. Isn’t that fucking enough?”

Naruto started tearing up, “No.” He looked at his boyfriend and somehow composed a fake smile. “Sasuke I love you, I do. But you need to be a better father and if you loved me, you would start trying harder.” Naruto turned around and headed for the door.  His hands were inches away from turning the door handle, but his body had cemented into place.

Naruto turned around to see Sasuke looking out the window with a solemn expression on his face, tears slowly dripping down his white skin. “Hey Sasuke, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to get so angry at you, I know your trying, I just worry that you don’t care about her you know? She is your family and that means she’s mine. I just want you to be able to have something as special as I have with my kids. If you just try.” 

Naruto turned back to head out the door, not knowing where he was going to go, but he just wanted to calm down. “I'll be back later, I do love you, I really do. I’m sorry Sasuke.”

Sasuke didn’t waver, his head was still firmly placed forwards towards the crystal-clear window. “Hm.” He refused to say anything more, because he wasn’t too sure what he was feeling right now. Guilt? Anger? Sorrow? 

-

Naruto walked forwards, not knowing what direction he was going or really to what location. He just walked. Listened to the leaves which danced around in the wind, which were accompanied by birds singing to the skies, like some strange yet calming relaxing sonata. 

He walked slowly forwards on the dirt track, watching his feet tussle the sand underneath. He looked up to the sun, which pulsated through the leaves and dangled towards to the ground like golden streamers hanging from the trees.

Naruto felt his heavy breathing calming, almost mimicking the peaceful scenario. His body went from an angered harsh walk to a peaceful stroll, which tried to dance in rhythm with the leaves whilst softly skimming the dirt underneath it. 

Naruto smiled, feeling better already and then he felt it, the bright idea. He knew what he would do today. 

With a smile on his face, he started to jump forwards, excited for the day to come. 

-

12 pm

Naruto knocks on the door with a smile as big as his face.

He waits patiently by the door, twiddling his thumbs until the door was opened. Naruto was greeted by a long-time friend, who looks like they haven’t had an ounce of sleep, messy pink hair dangling all over their face, accompanied by deep green eyes and darkened circles to accentuate them.

“Naruto?”

“Hey you, looking fabulous as always.”

Sakura punched Naruto on the shoulder, which for a normal person would have sent them flying across the street, but luckily Naruto could hold his own with Sakura. 

“What do you want. I’m too hung over to deal with your bubbly energy, not all of us have some magic beast that helps us recover really quick.” 

Naruto chuckled lightly at Sakura’s remarks whilst entering and attempting to take off a shoe. 

“I’m here to take the kids off your hands, you still have our children?”

Sakura lightly laughed, loud enough for Naruto to hear behind her, “I’m pretty sure I still have them.”

Naruto walked around a corner to find a puddle of mess, a room topped with drawings, broken crayons, plastic shuriken and nerf guns. He saw Boruto and Sarada fighting over a game of tekken, yelling at the screen to win the game for them and Himawari in the corner drawing another unicorn painting.

Naruto smiled at this sight, he wanted nothing more than to be the best dad for his kid and it hurt him to think Sasuke was missing this with Sarada. 

“Well hello you guys.” Naruto said mischievously. The three kids turned around with spooked expressions on their face. 

“Dad?” Boruto exclaimed in a curious and questioning voice.

Naruto smiled as he braced for a running Himawari that was ready for a bear tackle hug, “hey, I know your mother was meant to pick you guys up, but I called and asked if it was okay if I stole you guys for the day.”

Himawari’s face lit up as if she just saw a flying unicorn in the sky, “yay daddy, I missed you soooooooo much.”

Naruto’s face glowed in joy, he was nothing without his children, they were the centre to his existence. 

“So, what do you say, adventure with the old timer?”

Boruto smiled and stood up to give his dad an epic high five, “you know it!” 

-

Naruto was outside Sakura’s door, thanking her for taking care of the kids, he offered to cook her dinner anytime and gave her an invite to visit him at his new place. Sarada stood behind Sakura, a near copy of her and Sasuke, she waved at Boruto with a wide smile on her face and pink cheeks which highlighted her beautiful deep black eyes. 

Before Naruto could say his last good bye, he slowly whispered into Sakura’s ear. “Sakura, is it okay if I also take Sarada today?”

Sakura looked at him with a confused and almost defensive motherly look, “hmm”. 

Sakura looked over at Sarada and pursed her lips in a questioning way. “Hey sweetie would you like to join Naruto and his family for today? I know you had plans to go practice with Boruto later on, so if you wish to go, I will allow you to go.” 

Sarada’s face lit up, she smiled widely and ran over to give her mother a giant hug, “thank you so much ma. Ille just get changed Mr. Uzumaki and be right over.”

“Take your time sweetie.”

Naruto looked at Sakura with deep gratitude, “thank you.”

Sakura gave Naruto a look that was more scary and threatening than anything he had ever seen, “take care of her, you hear me?”

Naruto gulped down in fear of being killed by Sakura If anything would happen to her baby girl, “yes mam.”

“Hm.” Sakura folded her arms in a cross manner, but soon relaxed her fist, “but thank you for thinking about her.”

“Anything for you and Sarada, you guys are my family and as much as Sasuke doesn’t want to admit it, he loves you guys just as much, he just struggles to show it.” 

Sakura looked at Naruto with loving eyes, emerald gems that glowed in response to Naruto’s kind words. 

“I hope that’s true, because I worry about her. I’m fine, I’m strong, I can survive with or without him, not that I want anything to happen to him, because you guys are now...”

“Sakura, it's fine I understand what you mean.”

“Hmm, it’s just her I worry about sometimes, you know? She basically grew up without a dad and I don’t want that to define her in a bad way, if you get what I mean?”

Naruto nodded his head, “I certainly do, it’s easy to start worrying so much about them, isn’t it? But all you can do is try your best and hope that what you teach them and how you guide them is the right way.”

Sakura placed her head on Naruto’s shoulder, letting out an agreeing sigh. 

“I’m ready!”

Naruto laughed to himself, seeing Sarada in a full ninja outfit. “Well you do seem ready to take on a whole battle.” 

Naruto beckoned her forward and placed a loving hand on her head as he messed around with her hair.

“Alright ninjas, off we go.”

*In a quick blink, all 4 ninjas were off to the trees, skimming the branches quickly and being alert of any dangers which they might face, like a stray evil cat*


	19. Will you stay or will you go?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto and Sasuke both have wives and children in Konoha. One drunken reunion gets a bit out of hand, and Naruto drunkenly accepts to recreate a kiss that happened long ago. This kiss starts a chain reaction, which leads to a confession which has been held for many years.
> 
> -Trying to stay as true to the series, so N/H and S/S are already canon :(. But there will be twist and turns that leads to a different ending.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Don't read it if you don't like the Naru/Sasu pairing.

Naruto flipped over the next page, skimming the words slowly making sure he absorbed every drop of ink that was on the paper. He lifted his eyes to look towards the corner of his room where Sasuke usually sat. The room was so empty and lifeless, the only company Naruto had were his lifeless pieces of paper.

The corner of the room was merely infected by the ghost of Sasuke’s body, and as much as Naruto was trying to distract himself from the thought that Sasuke had yet returned he could vividly imagine him right there. Sitting with his black coffee in his left hand, one leg crossed, thinking, forehead creased in deep thought over some documents. 

He missed him, he needed him, but the last time he saw him was a month ago before he had to leave on an urgent mission with nearly every elite shinobi to de-escalate a potential war that was brewing at the Hidden Mist Village.

Naruto’s heart sank again, thinking of the last day he saw him before he went away. 

They had gotten into a fight, a really shitty fight. 

-

*Flash back*

“Sasuke, I just don’t understand why I can’t go with you?”

“Naruto, you are being unreasonable, you are the Hokage, you know this. Coming for me the first time got you in so much shit, you cannot let your feelings for me get in the way of being the fucking Hokage, will you for once think with your head?”

Naruto started tearing up, heart beating in flustered motions, skin accumulating heat as fast as a kettle, “why the fuck shouldn’t I think with my heart, you cold fucking bastard, just because you decided to turn off your frickin emotions, doesn’t mean I don’t have any.”

Sasuke turned around to face Naruto, furiously walking towards him. 

“Naruto, you are really crossing the fucking line, you know I care for you, what else do you fucking want from me? A bed of full of roses every day? A confession of my undying love written in poetry form?”

Naruto turned around from Sasuke storming off into their bedroom, “Urgh, no I don’t want that, I just want you to understand that I could come with you, your life is here, what if something happens like last time?”

“I'll be fine Naruto, plus this mission is very important. They need as many skilled ninja going, there will be war if we don’t tame the situation over there, you know this.”

Naruto bit his lower lip knowing Sasuke was speaking nothing but the truth, he just couldn’t come to terms with accepting the fact that Sasuke wouldn’t let him protect him.

“I know Sasuke, that’s why I should go.”

“No Naruto, you’re not fucking going. What if the potential war comes here? Who will protect the village? Huh? Are you just going to abandon the village because you couldn’t stop and think with your head instead of your fucking heart for once?”

Naruto started to feel hot rage build within him, like a deep dark power was slowly manifesting from his toes upwards, clawing its way slowly out of Naruto’s skin. 

“What are you going to fucking stop me?”

Sasuke walked over and punched Naruto in the shoulder, enough for him to lose his stance.

“You realize I could stop you, I am the Hokage after all.”

“Do that and I will fucking leave Konoha, I am not a damn child Naruto.”

Naruto pushed Sasuke out of his space and walked back into the living room.

“I just wished you would give a shit Sasuke, about me about your family that’s here, your fucking daughter for God sake.”

“Oh, my lord Naruto not this again with Sarada, she is a ninja, she needs to learn that accepting to be a ninja, means you accept the fact that you work alone, that death is likely to occur and that being a ninja is not all fun and games.” 

“Do you just not care about her? Don’t you want her to have the family that you and I never had growing up?”

“Look at us Naruto, we are considered some of the strongest Ninja’s in the world, I think not growing up with a father that babies her will be good for her. I am not here to place a bandage on her every time she falls.”

Naruto started to cry, anger seeping out of him this time, no longer containing itself, just falling out in hot tears. “Don’t you care at all Sasuke? Can’t you find it in that cold heart of yours to see that this is wrong, staying here and taking care of your family should be your priority over fighting. Sasuke if you walk out, you are walking out on her and me.”

Naruto started to wipe away his tears, “last time you broke Sarada’s and Sakura’s hearts when you left, now you are going to include me in the equation?”

Sasuke looked at Naruto with dark eyes, full of mixed emotions. “I am not walking out on you,, I am fucking serving Konoha, and if you are the Hokage then you should start fucking acting like it. I am going Naruto, end of discussion.”

*End flashback*

-

Naruto sadly looked at his paper work, he highlighted a few lines and wrote some notes on a spare piece of paper. 

He had no idea what will happen when Sasuke come back. If he ever does. Word is the threat of war is no more since the Hidden Leaf and Sand Village aided the Hidden Mist. Even though the threat is gone, many of Konoha’s elite shinobi decided to stay to aid in the relocation and safe keeping of villagers. Naruto heard from one of the reports that Sasuke was in that small group which volunteered themselves to stay. 

But it scared Naruto, he hadn’t heard anything from Sasuke since he left, besides the mandatory scrolls each shinobi assigned to help must send back, but a letter full of battle description is not much of a heart felt piece. 

He started to worry long ago whether Sasuke would return, and if he did would they still be together? Naruto missed him immensely, but every growing day he started to think Sasuke would never return home.  Many shinobi started arriving back to Konoha one by one. Each handing in their last assignment reports, the only ones left were about 7 elite shinobi. Each willingly staying to aid in any way possible on their own accord.

Naruto could only start to think that Sasuke was delaying coming back because he didn’t want to see Naruto or that he just was delaying the inevitable break up talk with Naruto.

It had been driving Naruto mad, he has no idea if he would get his boyfriend back, but he knew as much as he loved Sasuke all he needed was for him to walk through that door, safe and unharmed. He wouldn’t stop him if he wanted to break up, because Naruto wanted him to be happy, and if he was too much for him, getting too attached and emotionally invested in Sasuke was not his cup of tea then he wouldn’t stop him. 

Naruto tried not to think about it, because the sheer idea of Sasuke wanting out from their relationship made his whole body feel like small daggers were cutting into every vein and vessel in his body. His heart started to clench into a tight hold and his lungs collapsed slowly until he felt like no oxygen was being circulated in his body anymore. So, before Naruto literally passed out he had to keep his mind distracted, “keep working, keep writing, think about your job, the people you're protecting”.

Naruto had to repeat this in his head every day to distract himself from sheer pain and extreme anxiety attacks, it actually helped significantly and he had surprisingly been doing very well at his job considering Sasuke and Kakashi were gone on this mission.  

-

*1 week later*

Naruto opened his saggy eyes, his head throbbed loudly and the left side of his face was deformed due to sleeping on his wooden table again. He looked around to see the sunlight trickling in from the outside, the papers he had on his table had smudged red stains from his pen being left open. He stretched out his strained back muscles and scratched the top of his hair. 

He looked at each corner of the room, empty spaces, no life, just stacks upon stacks of paperwork. Filled documents, signed contacts, each finished and completed. 

Naruto had done nothing but works since Sasuke left, he could do nothing else to distract himself. He needed to fill his mind with something. It was about a week ago when he started working from sunrise to sunset, no breaks, just full work. 

Only 2 days ago had he completely given up on going home and would either fall asleep on the wooden table or crash on the couch where Sasuke used to sit. 

Everyone was worried about him, he was clearly overworking himself and everyone could see it besides himself. But he was too stubborn to actually listen to anyone, he just kept working and working until he literally dropped.

It had been nearly 1 month and 3 weeks since Sasuke left for the mission and every single shinobi sent off to the relief mission had returned back, the only ones left were Kakashi and Sasuke. No word had been heard from both of them and Naruto was starting to lose his mind. The last thing he heard was from Ino who was the most recent shinobi to return, she mentioned that Sasuke and Kakashi had decided to stay until the whole village had been relocated even though there were only a handful of people left and the mist where fully capable of relocating them. 

Naruto got out of his seat walking sleepily towards the door, looking at the floor solemnly, one foot after each other. 

He walked out of the Hokage room towards the coffee machine in the kitchen, at this point he was a vessel of caffeine, needing 5 to 10 cups of coffee per day to keep him up with his crazy new schedule. 

As he waited for the water to boil he chucked 3 teaspoons of coffee blend into his Hokage number 1 cup. 

“You know that caffeine is bad for you right?”

Naruto’s eyes widened, he knew that sarcastic almost farther tone of voice.

“Kakashi!” Naruto nearly jogged over to him and enveloped him in a bear hug. “I can’t believe you’re here, I’ve missed you. Where have you been? What happened? How come you stay for so long?”

Kakashi looked at Naruto with unfounded happiness, “Oh Naruto I never thought I ever say this, but damn I have missed you too and your annoying voice.” 

Naruto and Kakashi patted each other on the back and stepped aside letting out manly coughs to subdue the fact that they were acting all mushy. Naruto looked across to his coffee and poured a second cup for Kakashi, he started to place the coffee blend into Kakashi’s mug whilst he begged his mouth to open, to say something, ask about the one thing he cared about.

“Kakashi…” Naruto gulped down on his fear, “where’s Sasuke?”

Naruto turned around to pass Kakashi his drink, he saw the one thing he had been dreading. That look, of misery, despair, sorrow.

“Um, he came back with me, but he said he wanted to go to the house first.”

Kakashi tried to look away from Naruto, but Naruto wasn’t standing down he was looking directly at him. He wasn’t going to let this kill him, he was Hokage and he was not going to break again.

“Oh, that’s a shame, well I should be getting back to work. But take the whole week off, rest Kakashi you deserve it.”

Kakashi quickly bolted his hands out to stop Naruto from leaving, “wait Naruto, are you sure? Isn’t there a lot of work to do since Sasuke and I  have been away?”

Naruto started to dryly laugh, a fake laugh which he had perfected after many years, “nope, I actually worked triple hard since you two left, I am actually a week ahead of schedule, so take a week off come back in on Monday for work okay?”

Naruto looked at Kakashi and smiled, a smile which said I need to be alone right now, a smile which was trying so very hard to cover the rushing pain that lingered underneath.

Kakashi started to slowly walk away, “only is your sure?”

Naruto was about to open the door which lead him to his office, but he lingered at the handle looking down the corridor watching Kakashi slowly walk away. “Kakashi can you please do me a favour?”

Kakashi nearly whipped his head around, “of course anything.”

“Can you please go tell Sasuke that he doesn’t need to return to work if he wishes not to.” 

Kakashi excitement faded, his shoulder slumping downwards towards the floor, “oh, I understand.”

Naruto walked into his room and slammed the door behind him, he walked forwards towards his table with incredible force pushing him forward. Today he was going to work himself to the bone, whether it killed him or not, he was the Hokage, and like Sasuke said, he was going to act like it.

-

*30 minutes later*

After finishing yet another stack of paperwork Naruto’s mind started to waver from the blurring amount of lines in his paperwork and all the calculations which had muddled all in Naruto’s mind. 

He couldn’t stop the thought arising in his brain, almost developing like a pastry in his head, until he could longer compress it. 

_ ‘Was Sasuke moving out? Was that the reason why he didn’t come here, because he wanted to move his stuff out before Naruto got home? Was he really leaving? Why didn’t he come see me first? Why was this happening? Why does his heart keep being broken apart into a million pieces? Why him? What the fuck did he do wrong to deserve this? Why Sasuke? Why?’ _

Naruto shook his head aggressively to get the thought out of his head. He looked down at the paper with such aggression, as if burning the paper with his vision alone. He had to work harder, faster and longer. 

If Sasuke was leaving because he didn’t act like the Hokage, then he was going to work to the bone until Sasuke has to take back that shitty statement. 

Naruto stood up with such aggression that the wooden chair scratched against the floor, he took the pile of paperwork he had just finished and placed it on the floor. He placed a sticky note on it to remind him what the paperwork was for and what day cabinet it was meant to go into. 

He started to look around the room and realized that his entire floor was now nearly enveloped in stacks of paper. He curiously looked at the floor, trying to concoct a plan for organizing this mess. 

*

5pm

Naruto could finally see the floor, he brushed off some dust that accumulated on his hands, he smirked at the floor, looking down at it in triumph. 

He let out a sigh thinking to himself that sooner or later he will run out of things to do to distract him. He can’t live the rest of his life trying to pretend like this is all okay, that working himself till he literally collapses is fine, but what else was he meant to do? What could subdue that loud voice in his head telling him he's not fine, that his heart is hurting more than he could express, that his whole heart was slowly dying because of one man?

How can he tell the people of his village that he can no longer work because he was heartbroken? He was being stupid and immature, he wasn’t a kid anymore, he had to stop being so involved in romance and just let go and move on. Maybe he needed to be more like Sasuke, just don’t have emotions at all. 

“Naruto, Sir”?

Naruto turned around in shook

“Sorry Shizune, I did not see you there, are you okay?”

Shizune looked worried, she shyly raised her shoulders and wriggled on the spot in discomfort.

“Uh I just got a call.”

Naruto looked at her with great worry, what did she just hear?

“Shizune, what is it? You can tell me.”

“Well… Sasuke just called.”

Naruto started to hyperventilate, did Sasuke just break up with him over the office phone? Was he calling to tell Naruto he was leaving the house, or worse was he hurt? 

“He wishes to talk to you, hes on line 1.”

Naruto gulped down a whole ball of anxiety, smiled the fakest smile he could possible manage to do and thanked Shizune and walked over to the phone on his desk to answer.

He felt every step towards that phone was literally stepping him further and further away from the desk. He heard the door shut as Shizune left, the sound of the door shutting echoed in his ears. 

Why did the room suddenly feel so small and dark? Why couldn’t he move his feet anymore? Why was that red phone on his table so scary, so threatening? It was just a phone, nothing less, nothing more. It wasn’t a robber or a villain here to tear Naruto and the village apart, then why was it so ominously sitting on the table?

His hands started to shake a little as he went in to grab the phone. 

He pressed line 1 and picked it up, he could hear irrational breathing and shaking.

Naruto knew this was it, this phone call would lead to his death. 

“Sasuke?”

Naruto could hear Sasuke’s breath exhalate anxiously on the line when he heard his name.

“Naruto, uh Hi.”

“Long time no see, are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine…”

Naruto was gripping the phone so tightly, he almost felt like any more strength and he was going to break the phone in half. 

“Why are you calling, I’m at work, and Kakashi already told me you’re not coming in, so you didn’t need to call to say you’re not coming in, I don’t need you in anyways.”

“No, Naruto I’m not calling for work, umm…”

Naruto’s heart was racing a million miles per hour, his eyes had already started burning, he couldn’t take this any longer.

“Sasuke for fuck sake just say what’s on your mind, this is killing me.”

“I need you to come home.”

Naruto’s eyes widened, why did he have to come now? Did he want to leave Naruto face to face? Did he want the glory to watch Naruto crumble at his feet in defeat?

“What? Why?”

“I have something really important to talk to you about.”

“What?”

“I have to do this face to face Naruto, can you come?”

“Yer, I'll be there in 5.”

Naruto hanged up the line before Sasuke could say another word. 

He started to cry heavily, gripping onto his heart with his hands. He slowly collapsed to the ground in pain, he no longer held it in, he just started to sob.

“Why Sasuke!? Why!?” 

He couldn’t believe this was it, he was going to go home and get dumped. Everything he had worked for, all the lying at the start, all the insecurities what was it all for? He thought it would be forever with Sasuke, he thought he found his happiness. 

Why him? Hasn’t he already gone through enough? Hasn’t he already been tortured enough? 

“Why is the fucking world against me?!”

Naruto stood up, wiped his tears away aggressively, he angrily walked over to the window and opened it, he applied a large force of chakra to his feet and  sky rocketed out towards his house, bouncing from roof to roof so quickly that you could barely see him. 

-

*7pm

Naruto looked at his house through the forest, all lit up, so welcoming and warm. But it wasn’t, the house was holding the one person who had all the kryptonite to defeat Naruto, the power to finally kill the light he carried. 

If Naruto is the sun and Sasuke the moon, then today, this house, this moment would be a solar eclipse, the moon finally blocking out the sun.

Naruto took slow steps forward, afraid of the house and the man inside. Afraid of the pain that would follow after opening the front door. 

But alas even though his mind was saying run away, his legs walked forward towards his doom. 

Sooner or later he was in front of his door, looking down at the welcome mat thinking to himself, Kakashi and Shizune looked so miserably down and solemn when they talked to Naruto, did Sasuke already tell them he was leaving Naruto? How many people knew about this, was the whole village laughing behind Naruto’s back, waiting for his heart break?

Was no one kind enough to tell him Sasuke was going to rip out his heart on this day, on the solar eclipse?

Naruto started to turn the handle, fearful of what lay on the other side. But he walked forward into the house anyways, he had to get this over and done.

-

As he slowly closed the door behind him he found Sasuke already waiting for him at the kitchen table. 

He looked at Naruto with tired and drained eyes. 

“Sasuke, care to tell me what this is all about? Because I have been wracking my brain for so long and I just… need this to stop.”

Sasuke got up from his seat and walked over to Naruto, he looked down to the ground, like he was struggling to say the next few words. He raised his head up and bit down on his lips.

“Sasuke?”

“Naruto, I have thought long and hard about this, but I believe this is what I want to do…”

Naruto started to clench his fist, he knew the next couple of words will be the bullets which would finally silence his heart. He felt his chest contracting against him, pulling and pushing harshly against his rib cage. 

He wasn’t ready to die.

“Naruto…”  Sasuke said whilst slowly getting down on one knee.

-silence-

“Will you marry me?”


	20. The end of the Aisle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto and Sasuke both have wives and children in Konoha. One drunken reunion gets a bit out of hand, and Naruto drunkenly accepts to recreate a kiss that happened long ago. This kiss starts a chain reaction, which leads to a confession which has been held for many years.
> 
> -Trying to stay as true to the series, so N/H and S/S are already canon :(. But there will be twist and turns that leads to a different ending

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Don't read it if you don't like the Naru/Sasu pairing.
> 
> Author notes: This is the last and final chapter, I just want to say thank you so so so so much for reading a A kiss never forgotten, it has ment the world having so many people read my story and I am so happy so many enjoyed it. I cant wait to keep writing my other stories and I hope you stay and keep reading. To those who have supported and wrote comments on my fanfic thankyou! your encouragement has ment the world and I could not have written so much and gotton so far with this story if I didnt have such amazing people pushing me xxx MOSTLY THANK YOU TO RITA WHO THIS CHAPTER IS DEDICATED TOO! YOU ARE HONESTLY AN ANGEL AND I COULD NOT THANK YOU ENOUGH FOR ALL THE WORK YOU HAVE PUT INTO MY STORY BECAUSE YOU BELIEVED IN IT 3 HONESLTY I AM SO GRATEFUL TO YOU 3
> 
> Thank you all for sticking around and I hope you enjoyed... but thats a wrap folks for A kiss never forgotten <3

Naruto stared at the white tiles, shaking, almost hyperventilating. The tiles were a shinny white colour and Naruto meet his own eyes on the shiny reflection. He looked at himself also dressed in white and started re-stressing about today so he got up and started to look around for any form of distraction.

“Oh, look what pretty white curtains…”

Naruto started to concentrating on his breathing, he couldn’t tell why was he so nervous? He known this day was coming for 12 months. Then why was he freaking out so much right now?

He started circling the room, admiring the beautiful features of the of the room. There was ancient Japanese scripture around the walls and photos of the shrine when it was constructed many years ago. Golden flower embellishments almost vined around the room, soft golden flowers dripping into the white soft features of the room.

He smiled thinking too himself; he never thought he would be here again, this time with someone he was hundred times more excited about. He vaguely remembered the day he was here with Hinata, on that day he didn’t felt stressed, he didn’t really feel anything. He was extremely relaxed, he chuckled under his breath looking back now the signs were so obvious from the beginning.

Naruto heard the soft clink of a Japanese bamboo shot, water flowing softly and birds chirping in unison. He was so excited but at the same time so nervous, it had been a bumpy road leading to this day, but it was finally here.

Naruto’s thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a soft knock at the door.

“Naruto are you ready?” Kakashi asked as he closed the door behind him.

Naruto turned around with small tears forming in the corners in his eyes,  a wide smile that just wouldn't disappear from his face

“More than I will ever be Kakashi.”

Kakashi came forward,  he himself was feeling a bit  emotional since  he had considered himself  Naruto’s  father.

“My god Naruto, I must say you look amazing.”

Naruto spun around to face the mirror, looking at himself in all white. He wore a modern white tuxedo with a crème top underneath. He accompanied the entire look with the Hokage cloak hanging off both his shoulders, he was truly a sight.

“If only your parents could see you.”

Naruto started to tear up even more, “oh no! No crying on your big day  Naruto.”

“Well stop saying emotional shit that’s going to make me cry.”

Kakashi came forward to embrace Naruto, he didn’t care how mushy he was acting, today he was basically filling in for Minato, he had seen this boy grow up from a tiny little kid, abandoned, alone, craving attention, to this man. A man who had conquered so much in his lifetime, a man worthy of the title  Hokage.

“I am so proud of you Naruto, I know it wasn’t easy for you and Sasuke to get married, but it was all worth it in the end.”

“Hmph” Naruto mumbled quietly under his breath as he let his tears start fall down his cheeks and onto Kakashi’s shoulder.

“Okay before we  both start bawling our eyes out, let’s get you down this alter.”

Naruto nodded, wiping his tears away in the process. He looked around for his bouquet, he found it next to the seat he was using before. He picked up the beautiful bouquet which held white roses and lilies. He started following Kakashi to the door, as Kakashi went to open it, Naruto lingered for just two more seconds.

“You coming Naruto?”

Naruto looked back into the white washed room, as though waiting for answers. And it was in that second that the almost clear white curtains brushed upwards from the wind that he saw his mum and dad standing behind it,  clear as day.

They smiled as they stared at their son, and as quick as the curtain went up the curtain would soon fall down. It was as the curtain started floating down, that Naruto heard the soft voice of Kushina in the air, telling him she loved him. And then they were gone, the room looked the same, and Naruto knew it was time. He turned around to face Kakashi and smiled, the most confident smile he had ever produced in his lifetime.

“Yep! Let’s do this.”

-

Naruto and Sasuke had agreed on a modern slash traditional wedding, so the venue was still held in one of the most spiritually old shrines in Konoha;but Naruto wanted to add a modern influences to the wedding, which Sasuke didn’t go extremely against. This meant that there was a band to coordinate the music for the evening, which had been playing typical wedding songs all day long.

Naruto had heard them from his room, but as he walked closer and closer to where everyone was sitting, he started to hear the music getting louder and louder. The soft tunes of a piano and harp started coursing into Naruto’s body, he was starting to get more flustered the louder the music.

As if the music was exciting every cell in his body, the soft tunes pulled him forward to his new life.

Naruto slowly followed Kakashi who lead him to the main event, soon they both reached a golden door. Naruto was fully aware that behind this golden door was an exquisite garden. A garden which currently had over one hundred people sitting down in chairs waiting for Naruto to appear, and a man, so special, so beautiful, waiting for him at the end of the aisle.

Naruto started to hyperventilate properly this time, feeling like his heart was just short of collapsing. His face was going all red and the sound of the band intruding Naruto was literally pulsating in his skin.

“Naruto, breathe, you will be fine.” Kakashi said whilst taking Naruto’s arm to assume the father position.

Naruto nodded, feeling one million emotions at that very second.

But as the  doors started opening, allowing the bright light from the sun to enter Naruto’s eyes something in Naruto’s body changed, he started to calm, his lungs relaxed and he un-clenched his nervous fist. His heart stopped in pure awe. He didn’t see the gardens which had been so beautifully decorated with white silk ribbons, he didn’t see the guest all standing up for him and smiling. He only saw one thing that shined  brighter than the ten  suns combined.

Sasuke.

There he was smiling at Naruto, a genuinely large smile, which he couldn’t wipe off his face. Dressed in a gorgeous deep black. He was looking at Naruto like he was the only one in the entire garden and Naruto looked at him in the exact same way.

As the band starting playing Bridal March from the opera Lohengrin, Naruto started to slowly walk forwards, one foot after another, slowly walking over white petals that were scattered all over the floor. He started to think to himself as he stepped forwards towards his future, how much he had  struggle to get here and how  it was all worth it in then end. If he knew back then what his future held, he would hug everyone around him and say thank you, because for every argument, for every single late night, for every emotional grieve, he is able to stand where he is today.

Naruto started to remines of that day, that horrible yet beautiful day he got proposed too.

-

*1 year before*

“So, Naruto will you marry me?” Sasuke looked at him, whilst starting to get a worried expression  on his face.

Naruto looked down in shock, not knowing what to do. His anger and worry had completely slipped away, Sasuke was right here, safe from harm and asking for his hand in marriage. What was he meant to do?

Naruto heard Kurama's voice in his head., “say yes you fool!”

“YES!” Naruto said whilst still in a state of shook.

Sasuke let out a breath and relaxed his whole body, “oh thank god.” He got up and placed a silver ring on Naruto’s left hand, he threw the box over his shoulder not caring where it landed. He took Naruto into a deep long and passionate kiss, a kiss attempting to make up for  being away for nearly 2 months.

Naruto started to cry whilst aggressively kissing him back, he missed him so much, he couldn’t believe that Sasuke was in his arms. He had been so worried for so long, not knowing if he would return had been killing him, but finally all that stress and worry could finally float away.

It was as though somehow Naruto found peace in that kiss, like the stress and anger which had piled up had been burnt away slowly by the soft touch of Sasuke’s kiss.

Naruto pulled away, looking into Sasuke’s eyes longingly. He saw that he had a few cuts on his face, which had left their damage on Sasuke’s porcelain perfect skin. Naruto started to trace them with his fingers, as though attempting his best to clear them away from his skin.

“I’ve missed you Sasuke… I thought you were leaving me. You don’t understand what I went through these past two  months, I was going crazy.”

Sasuke looked down to the ground as though he was guilty, he back away slowly from Naruto, as though preparing for something.

“What are you doing?”

Sasuke bit his lip and looked at Naruto with the purest puppy dog eyes he could summon, “well, would you kill me if I said I planned it to be like that?”

Naruto’s eyebrow started twitching,   his fist starting to clench so hard that his knuckles all simultaneously cracked.

“What do you mean Sasuke?” Naruto said in an increasingly aggressive voice.

Sasuke started running for the door, “it wasn’t my idea it was Kakashi’s.”

Naruto started chasing him outside, ready to attack Sasuke with everything he got, but then he stopped right in his tracks. As he stepped outside his house, he was struck with another round of shock.

“CONGRATULATIONS!”

Naruto could see everyone he knew, Ino, Sai, Kiba, Kakashi and Iruka, Lady Tsunade, and    basically the entire village.

Naruto’s mouth was on the ground. “What the hell? I LITERALLY JUST WALKED PAST HERE? AND NONE-OF THIS WAS HERE.”

“What do you expect from Konoha’s best trained Ninjas?” Konohamaru said in a confident tone.

“Oh my gosh Naruto! You're engaged!” Everyone started running towards him to see the ring and Naruto just stood there as still as a statue in shock.

Everyone started surrounding him to have a view of the new shiny silver ring on his left hand which bonded him to Sasuke.

Naruto smiled at everyone who came to look at his ring ;thanking them as they congratulated him on his new engagement. Until sooner or later it was Sakura’s and Hinata’s turn to come and congratulate him

He looked at them with worry but gratitude that they even came, “guys, you didn’t have to come, I would have understood.” Hinata looked at him with tears nearly falling from her eyes.Sakura gave him a warm smile to ease his concerned. .

“Naruto, I am happy for you, if you are happy, so am I. I just I really want you to live the life you have always wanted and I hope Sasuke helps you fulfil that.” Hinata came in and hugged Naruto so aggressively as though trying to find some security in Naruto’s arms.

 Naruto let go off Hinata and wiped away a tear that escaped the corner of her eye. “Thank you, to the both of you…truly, thank you.”

Sakura and Hinata looked at each other and smiled and then looked back at Naruto with the same warm expression.

“But are you guys as shocked as I am? Because I did not see this coming.” Naruto said whilst looking at his new shiny band on his finger.

Sakura started laughing and Hinata followed, “not really, I am pretty sure everyone in the village knew besides you Naruto.” Naruto looked at them like he was desperate for answers, “If you want the mastermind behind this go ask our crazy sensei.” Sakura said as she pointed to Kakashi which had overheard and was already scurrying away in fear.

Naruto walked over to Kakashi with such a large pout on his face, “so... oh wise teacher, please tell me how making me think Sasuke was leaving me, leads to a good engagement story, huh?”

Kakashi chuckled like he was in trouble, “well... you see, I thought if we made you think he was leaving for good that the engagement would be more of a surprise and it was, was it not?”

Naruto gave Kakashi an angered look , but he was right, he didn’t see this coming in a million years.

“ Why is everything so complicated with you Kakashi?”

Kakashi just smiled innocently. “Hey, Sasuke was totally on board, I didn’t even have to convince him, he thought it was hilarious.”

Sasuke had overheard their conversation and also started to bolt away.

“Oh no you don’t mister come back here right now!” Naruto pointed Sasuke forward. And grudgingly like a kid in trouble Sasuke obeyed.

Naruto crossed his arms like he was a disappointed parent “so, care to tell me the whole story?”

“Fine… you know how we had that big fight before I left?”

Naruto nodded, pursing his lips like it still hurt to think about it.

“Well when we were over there in the Mist, I saw a lot of shit Naruto, families torn apart, people taken from their love ones forever and in the haze of blood shed I realized I couldn’t afford to lose you. I decided then and there that when I came back I wanted to marry you. It was only after the immediate threat had passed  and we started the evacuations and rebuilding  the city did I told Kakashi  about my plans about wanting to send you a message that I wanted to marry you. He told me no, instead to seem like I was still angry and make you believe I was leaving, so when I actually asked for your hand in marriage it would come as a giant surprise. . I thought it was kind of cruel at first but after a few drinks I thought it was hilarious and went along with Kakashi’s plans.”

Naruto looked at him with disbelief, “you two are basically children.  What am I going to do with you guys?”

Both Kakashi and Sasuke started to chuckle, “it was evil, but it did its job, you did not see it coming.”

Naruto smiled, “that’s true, but it doesn’t mean I still won’t  kill you both.”

Kakashi’s eyes widened, “well I didn’t account for that, so I will be running now, good luck Sasuke, you can’t run away you live here.” Kakashi quickly bolted to the trees and away from Naruto.

Sasuke looked at Naruto with a scared smile, “have sympathy oh lord Hokage.”

Naruto came forward seductively and pulled Sasuke in close by the waist, “there will be no sympathy, Naruto leaned in to capture Sasuke in a deep kiss, suddenly craving something much more, something he hadn't had in so long.

“Can you guys not.” Konohamaru said behind them, “gross”.

Naruto laughed as he let go off Sasuke, “your face is gross.”

“Well let’s fight this out then old man.”

Naruto proceeded to pretend he was throwing shuriken at Konohamaru, making weird ninja swishing noises as he did so. Konohamaru pretended to dodge and flip around the attacks, “you will never catch me, ass wipe.”

Naruto smiled at Konohamaru who still acted like a kid even though he was an adult now.

He saw Himawari and Boruto run up to him, “dad!” Himawari screamed as she tackled her dad to the ground. , “congratulations papa!”

Naruto smiled and  smothered Himawari in kisses, “thank you my angel.” He  looked at Boruto who had his arms crossed. Boruto looked at his father with a struggling expression on his face as though attempting to say something. Naruto reached t out his hand to request Boruto to bump  fist with him.

He waited for a second and Boruto grudgingly replied back by bumping his fist in return, “congrats dad.” Naruto felt like a huge wave of happiness past through him, “thank you son, it really means a lot.”

“Hmph.” Boruto turned around not wanting to act all mushy, but Naruto was able to catch a glimpse of the small smile he allowed to surface on his face.

  In  the midst of being attacked by a giant bear  hug by Himawari, Naruto  saw Sasuke walk away towards someone, he couldn’t see who. Himawari kept getting in the way.

“Sweety do you want to go play with Akamaru?”

“Yes, let’s go daddy, can I ride on your back?”

“Sure, hop on the train express.”

As Naruto chugged forward pretending to be a train, he tried to eye Sasuke from a far, seeing him speak to someone. He crept forwards towards Kiba and Akamaru  who thankfully were near Sasuke anyways.

As he got closer and closer, Sasuke started to get down in his knees..  It was there in that moment that Naruto’s heart completely paused. That solid few seconds would be engraved in his mind for the rest of his life.

It was there in the woods, under the moon and the stars that he saw Sasuke, softly crying as he hugged his daughter Sarada. He could see Sasuke mouth the words, thank you.

If Naruto could love this man even more, then today, this moment would make him fall completely head over heels for him.

Naruto started to tear up slightly, he smiling and stared at  the floor, hoping no one would see him.

“Daddy why are you crying?”

“No Himawari, these are happy tears.”

“Oh, do you want teddy to wipe them off?”

Naruto chuckled lightly, “yes please.” Naruto turned his head, so Himawari could reach over and wipe Naruto’s tears away with her teddy.

-

Naruto would remember that  night for the rest of his life, he would remember sharing drinks, laughter and joy with his friends and family over the unison of him and Sasuke. Everything would have been perfect from now on till the wedding he hoped.

But unfortunately, the year to follow would not be an easy one, for changing the system in Konoha to allow for Gay marriage was going to be tougher than Naruto had anticipated. .

-

*6 months before the wedding*

Naruto was pacing back and forth, going from one end of the room to the next.

He was beyond fuming and he could see Kakashi in the corner of his eye telling him to calm down, but simmering down at this point would be null, he was already on his breaking point.

“I don’t understand your backwards way of thinking. Can you for once give me a good  fucking reason why we cannot legalize it? Because all the reasons I’m hearing right now are absolute bullshit.”

One of the male elders aggressively stood up, “that is no way to speak to the panel of elders, Naruto. I would watch your language if I were  you.”

“What for? If you are going to consider me scum of the society, then I shall do the same for you.”

Naruto could see Kakashi palm his head in response to the way he  was acting.

“Naruto, I have already explained, we do not approve because it goes against tradition, and what  kind of advisors would we be if we did not protect ancient tradition?”

Naruto started steaming from his ears, his blood pumping at a rapid rate, “you mean the traditions that allowed young ninjas to be treated as test subjects? Do you mean the traditions that allowed the segregation of an entire clan? Is this the traditions you so wish to keep?”

The elders  looked baffled, as though they were stuck in his own mind trying to figure out how to respond.

“Tell me elders!”

“No.” The main elder said whilst sitting down in defeat.

“Exactly, the old traditions are outdated.  I was appointed Hokage because the people trust my judgement, can’t you see that this is for all of Konoha, not just me. Don’t you think it’s unfair to all those who can’t marry because of stupid tradition?”

“But it’s just not pure, it’s a sin and a monstrosity.”

Naruto started to look at the elder who said that with such hurt in his eyes, he wasn’t even angry but sorry for them all. How they could be so stuck in traditions that they didn’t look at human value. “Look elder Mai, if I were to tell you that your grandson was gay and he was in love with another boy, what would you do?”

She looked at Naruto and couldn’t say a word, she just had her mouth open, unable to produce any form of sound.

“Everyone in this room, think about your grandkids, your daughters, sons, neighbours and friends, someone is gay. Just imagine saying to someone you love that they are not allowed to marry someone they cherish because of some old tradition that should have been taken down a long time ago.”

Naruto took a long breath   to calm himself, “really think about it, imagine yourself saying the words, you are a monster to your grandchild, imagine the look of hurt, pain and sadness on their faces.”

The elders looked at each other with concerned faces, they looked like they were experiencing the pain themselves.

Naruto pushed his chest forward and walked confidently forward to the front of the conference room, “we have been debating this issue for nearly 3 months now and I say this as Hokage, I am not afraid of change and I will not stand here waiting patiently for you to finally realize you are wrong, so either you are willing to except the future or you can stay behind.”

Naruto cracked his neck for the next words, “but I will not tolerate those who decide to stay behind, so If you wish to get up and leave the panel of advisors, I would do so, if I were you. Because from today onwards, I will not tolerate for this nonsense, you are my advisors because I trust in your judgment, but if your judgement is clouded in hate and wrongfulness then you are no better than Danzo and I will not blink an eye to kick you off the panel. So, choose wisely, those in favour may stay, those who disagree may go.”

Everyone looked around in shock and disbelief as to what they just heard. Naruto was never one to use his position as Hokage, but today he was not going to tolerate it anymore. He was sick of hearing he was disgusting and that what he was doing was wrong for 3 months, today he stood proud. They could either follow him or not, but he wasn’t going to be pushed around anymore.  And if everyone went against him, then he didn’t want to be Hokage anymore, because he refused to be the head of such a rotten system and panel of advisors.

Kakashi was also looking at Naruto in disbelief in the corner of the room, but his eyes also shined with pride for his Hokage, it took guts to do what Naruto just did, because he could be ultimately kicked out of the job if all the elders went against him.

It was undecided, everyone was still murmuring to each other, contemplating what to do.  One of the gentlemen that was going against Naruto quickly got up and stormed out. Before he left the room, he turned to face Naruto, “I cannot support this system Naruto, old tradition will always be better. It’s what binds us to be humble, if we stray from the path we fall into hell.”

“As you wish, Elder Sun Yu.”

Naruto looked at everyone else who seemed to be confused.

“Will the rest of you leave as well or will you make the smart choice and follow me into a brighter future?”

Mai stood up again, “Naruto, I apologies, you are not a monster, I spoke out of anger… you are right, I could never say those words to my grandson, I will follow you.”

Naruto smiled, feeling his heart warm up slightly.

“I too will follow Naruto”

“Me too.”

“May you lead us into the future.”

Naruto’s smile was as wide a beam, he couldn’t believe after so many months of debating, it took one courage’s and job threatening speech to convince them. He was glad that it was Sun Yu who left, he was always against Naruto, never agreeing, stuck in his traditional and out-dated ways.

“May you all continue to guide me in the future.”

Kakashi started applauding in the back and then everyone followed, Naruto looked at the room and smiled. He knew that legalizing gay marriage was only the beginning t so much more needed to be fixed  in Konoha, and he realized he couldn’t be scared anymore, he needed to confront the elders about every issue that stained Konoha and changed the village for the better.

That day he would also remember, because if he didn’t put his job on the line he wouldn’t be standing in this white paradise today walking towards Sasuke.

-

*Wedding day- current time*

Naruto smiled, tears forming in the corners of his eyes as he looked into Sasuke’s black dreamy eyes.

Sasuke had never been one to show emotions, but that day, their wedding day, he had shed the extinct version of himself and just let go. On that day, there were no more walls, there was no reason to hide. The many feelings and emotions he had bottled inside since his early teens were finally are released. . His tears were falling quickly and freely. His smile was bright in the presence of his future. On this day Sasuke found  the peace he had longed for since he feel into darkness. It was in that white washed wedding that the sun and bright shine from Naruto had finally painted over everlast black stain that lingered in Sasuke’s soul. He wasn’t scared anymore, to cry, to laugh and smile, he was truly happy, and it was all due to this blonde headed man which smiled at him so lovingly, blue eyes sparkling with joy, looking at his love.

-FLASHBACK-

*5 months before the wedding*

“Naruto for Christ sake, its just flowers, will you just pick one already?”

Naruto fumbled over a pile of flowers, still unsure which ones he likes the most.

“Sasuke don’t pressure my process.”

Sasuke let out an irritating sigh, “Naruto, I love you. But right now, I also want to chidori your face into the ground, we have been here for over an hour, just pick the roses or something, we still have cakes to go decide, and then go over the decorations with the wedding planner, seriously Naruto.”

Naruto pouted, “fine… I'll have the…hmm, roses and lavender…on second thought no, the roses and the lilies.” Naruto smiled in triumph, “happy, grumpy ass?”

“Delighted. Okay, let’s go it's cake picking time.”

Naruto jumped on the spot, “this is going to be the best, I love cake.”

“I know you do, because you ate the entire sample cake last night.”

“I was stress eating okay! It’s because you are stressing the bride, I blame you.”

“Oh, my god. I am slightly regretting asking you to marry me, is it still too late to run out of the village?”

Naruto shot Sasuke an evil glare, “you are mean to me, I am the Hokage, I’ll just order everyone to go get you.”

Sasuke let out a huff, “just keep walking we are already late.”

“Race you there my dear fiance.” Naruto increased his chakra flow to his legs and feet and quickly bounced off the ground towards the roof tops, with each swift push forwards he could sense the warm and powerful energy of chakra flow in his legs. He thought he had Sasuke, but in a flash, he saw him whiz past with lighting streaks exuding out of his body.

“SHOW OFF!’

“Slow poke!”

-

*Wedding day- current time*

Naruto chuckled under his breath, whilst the Celebrant kept rambling on about loves true power, and how it binds us all.

“What are you laughing about?” Sasuke whispered as to not interrupt the Celebrant.

“Just remembering the day, I made you do two hours of cake sampling and one  hour of floral choices.”

Sasuke looked at Naruto with a very unimpressed face, “yes that was annoying.”

Naruto chuckled whilst smiling at Sasuke, looking at his hair flow slowly with the breeze that rushed by. His lips rose as he smirked back at Naruto, rosy cheeks that softly painted pink tones on such porcelain skin. His deep black eyes looked into blue ones with such love. Those eyes stared into Naruto’s soul, knowing that Naruto was feeling the exact same way.

“And now I will ask for the exchange of vows.”

Naruto nervously scrunched his hands, his throat felt like it was starting to clench in response to his nerves flexing in his entire body. He took a deep breath in and out and closed his eyes for just a moment to calm himself. He felt soft hands wrap around his.

He jolted his eyes up and looked at Sasuke’s hands securing  his, he smiled at Naruto, and in that moment Naruto knew he could do this.

“I Naruto Uzumaki, Lord 7th of Konoha, hereby vow to love and protect Sasuke Uchiha for the rest of my life. , I vow here and now that the Uchiha crest will forever be a symbol associated to Konoha and its strength and unity will shine bright alongside the Uzumaki crest.” Naruto struggled to get the next words out, he forcibly gulped down a ball of anxiety forming in his throat.

 “I Naruto Uzumaki believe that Sasuke is worthy of this title because…”

Naruto started to choke on his own words, emotions finally starting to get the best of him, “he has not only been a pivotal point in helping the Hokage get better but he also has been the soul reason the Hokage is standing here today, alive and happy. I Naruto respect, love and find this man more than fit of the title, as Hokage I thank him for the outstanding work he has down for the people in this village, and as his soon to be husband, I want to thank him for bringing color back into my life and helping me stand proud as Hokage. Because behind me, the hokage will always be Sasuke Uchiha and for that I believe his name and his family crest should be as important as mine.” Naruto took a deep breath out and smiled at Sasuke ever so softly, only letting one or two tears fall down before trying to collect himself again.

Sasuke’s eyes widened in disbelief from what he was hearing. He had no idea Naruto was going to say these vows, what did he mean by his family crest being a symbol associated to Konoha?

*FLASH BACK*

*3 months before the wedding*

Naruto looked at the plane white piece of paper in front of him, he just stared at it, like he was at some war with this innocent piece of paper. His forehead was creased  with stress and his constant tapping of his pencil against his desk could be heard from out the street.

“Will you stop fucking tapping that pencil Naruto? You are going to drive me insane.”

“Kakashi, it helps me focus.”

“What the fuck are you working on?” Kakashi grumbled as he stood up to look at what Naruto had on his desk.

“I don’t get it, it’s a blank piece of paper?”

Naruto looked at him with anger in his eyes, “I know that , these are meant to be my vows, I just can’t think of the right thing to say.”

Kakashi looked at him with worrying eyes, “oh, well… uh, tell him you love him and that… uh… he is a good ninja?”

Naruto started to hit his head against the table, “a good ninja? Really? My god, you are one million times worse than me, and that’s saying something.”

Kakashi started to grumpily walk back to his desk which was in the corner of the Hokage’s office now. “Look, I’m not good with mushy stuff Naruto, just make sure it actually comes from your heart, don’t just say typical bullshit, actually write things you mean. When you make a vow, it’s a promise. So, make promises you will keep.”

“Wow, that was actually useful, thanks Kakashi.”

“Glad I could help, now stop with the fucking tapping.”

Naruto got out from behind his desk  and went out the door with an idea in his head.

“Where are you going? We still have this contract to finish.”

Naruto was racing down the corridor as he screamed back at Kakashi in the room, “You gave me an idea, I'll be back later. Finish the contract yourself.”

Kakashi mumbled angrily under his breath, “thinks he can boss me around, hmph, if I stayed Hokage I could boot the little shit out of here.”

“Did you say something?” Naruto said from the far away distance

“Nope.”

-

*Wedding day- Current time*

“Naruto what do you mean about the Uchiha crest what are you talking about?”

Naruto smiled cheekily, “well 3 months ago when I started writing your vows, someone made me realize I should only make promises I could keep.”

Naruto quickly glanced at Kakashi who was chuckling under his breath.

“And so, I basically joined our family trees, it took me a very long time. But I guess being the Hokage has its perks, so you are now officially one of the head leaders in Konoha.  This means the Uchiha crest along side the Uzumaki crest will be symbols of pride, strength, wealth and power within Konoha and thus the entire world.

Sasuke looked at Naruto like he was going crazy, “but Naruto, you’re only doing this because you're marrying me, you have no right to do that. I don’t deserve the title, I…”

“Sasuke calm yourself, just because I am the   Hokage doesn't mean I decided this on my own.   You do realize that becoming a top leader in Konoha means you must have the majority vote from everybody in the village right?”

Sasuke started to look around at all the guest, he couldn’t believe that the village voted him into this position.

Sakura looked at Sasuke with a warm smile and a small tear falling down her face. She stood up and started walking towards Sasuke.

“This was Naruto’s and the whole villages surprise to you. Come out everyone.”

The little kids from the ninja academy started coming out in their ninja uniform. Typical green jackets with the Uzumaki crest on the top right corner of their jackets. Sasuke had no idea what was happening, but his heart was not ready for what he would see next.

“Turn around kids.”

The kids started turning around, and there it was, proudly sitting directly in the centre of the jackets, an Uchiha crest. Burning bright red for the entire world to see.

“Starting  next week these vest will be worn by every shinobi and training ninja. So, when we represent Konoha outside these walls, the Uchiha crest will be as visible as the Uzumaki crest.”

Sasuke looked at Naruto in disbelief, his eyes started burning red, tears forming rapidly in the corner of his eyes.

“Thank you, Naruto.” Sasuke walked forward and took Naruto into a passionate kiss. He didn’t care that they were not up to that part of the ceremony, he needed Naruto to know how much he felt for him. He needed his lips to show Naruto how grateful he was, that he was forever in debt to this man from saving him from darkness, from saving his family name burning into a crisp alongside with Sasuke.

The audience started to applause, and cheers starting beckoning from the crowd.

“Ahem…” The Celebrant cough under his breath.

“Sorry, please continue.” Naruto said whilst laughing under his breath.

“We shall continue then…”-

After continuing with their vowes the Celebrant continued with the rest of the ceremony.

“Do you Naruto take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, till death do you part?”

“I do.” Naruto said whilst choking up from all the feelings which were swelling up in his throat.

“Do you Sasuke take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, till death do you part?”

Sasuke breathed out slowly and smiled softly and looked at Naruto like he was his entire world “I do.”

“With the power vested in me, I now pronounce you, Husband and Husband, you may kiss your groom.”

Naruto smiled so widely, and for the first time in his life, he kissed his Husband. Many kisses would follow after, but that first kiss as newly weds will be the one that both Naruto and Sasuke will remember on their deathbeds. It will be this moment, under the radiating sun, under fire trees and in a sea of applause and cheers that they will remember forever. How it felt to kiss his Husband, how it felt to kiss the man he would spend the rest of his living days with. And by god, was it not the most amazing kiss he had ever had. It was _a kiss never forgotten._

Because that kiss would lead him to the next part of his life with Sasuke by his side. Together they will change Konoha for the better, but not only Konoha but  the world too. . Sasuke and Naruto would be considered some of the most influential and powerful ninjas in their world, with their teachings and guidance they would not only change Konoha but many other villages.

Till their dying days, the teachings of Naruto and Sasuke lived on throughout many others, their values of nurturing ninjas and creating a world without war, were peace is achieved by all villages and no child or person is expected to lay down their lives for the betterment of a village. Where people were not shunned or hidden for their differences and everyone was as equal as each other.

But even as bright as the sun may shine, darkness will follow. And with that darkness, light will shine a new.

A balance which is always occurring. But it is with Naruto’s and Sasuke’s teachings and guidance, that a hero will always rise against that darkness and will re-shine light onto the world once again.

-

Naruto and Sasuke spent the rest of their 50 years together, raising Boruto, Himawari and Sarada together, who all now act as main pillars in Konoha. Sasuke’s last words before his untimely death at 82 where proudly beautiful and where carried out perfectly by Naruto, who followed through with every single one of his dyeing wishes.

-

*10 minutes before Sasuke’s death*

“Naruto, my dear, .” Sasuke raised his frail hand to Naruto’s face. Opening his eyes as wide as he could to look into crystal blue eyes, “you look as beautiful as you did on our wedding day.”

Naruto smiled, “I’ve aged a bit since then I think. I could still take you in a match back then.”

Sasuke starting laughing, but his lungs couldn’t keep up, he starting coughing heavily, body slowly starting to shut down.

“Don’t push yourself, Sasuke. Your too ill to be laughing.”

“Listen Naruto, it will be my time to go soon.”

Naruto looked at him with utter pain in his eyes, “no Sasuke please. The doctor will be here soon, you will be fine, you will see.”

Sasuke softly smiled with the little energy he had left, “always optimistic my dear, but please my darling listen, I need you to know that you have made me the happiest man in this world and when I die, I want you to understand that you have given me a life I never knew I could have before. When we were younger, you saved me Naruto, it was you from the beginning, no one else. It was always you. Please continue our alliance and make sure our teachings of a better world are spread Naruto, make sure no child has to suffer the way we did as kids. Please promise me?”

Naruto started to tear up as he held onto Sasuke’s small and nearly lifeless hand. “I will I promise, but that’s no way to speak, you will live my dear, you will.”

Sasuke knew it was time, he could feel it, his lungs started slowing down and his heart beats started decreasing. “You will forever be my sun, thank you Naruto for showing me the light. I love you, I always have, since I was a little boy. I have always loved you.” Sasuke’s eyes started to close, until finally his hand went completely limp.

“Sasuke, no! No! No! No!” Naruto started to cry heavily as he embraced his departed husband. “Please, Sasuke, wake up… I’m not ready… Please.”

-

In the next couple of years after Sasuke’s death, Naruto would spend all his time and energy into making sure he fulfilled Sasuke’s wishes. And it wasn’t till he was 102 did Naruto finally die in his sleep peacefully, dreaming of his husband Sasuke.

The last thing Naruto remembered before blackness took over was when he and Sasuke were young and newly in love. He remembered the slow dance in the bar surrounded by his friends and family, he remembered the first time they kissed as a dare and he remembered the first time he told Sasuke he loved him. It all came back to him that night.

-

And it was Sasuke who was there waiting for him, when he opened his eyes to a white heaven. He was right there in a garden, flowers so colourful, sky shining so brightly,  . He was smiling as bright as the moon on a dark night.

“Naruto I’ve been waiting for you.”

Naruto started to smile, “come here!”

Naruto ran towards Sasuke, realizing he had his old strength back, his fit muscles strode him forward to his youthful partner, he jumped into Sasuke’s arms and leaned in for a deep kiss, a kiss he so longed for.   

“I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you even more.” Sasuke replied softly.

Naruto and Sasuke hugged for what felt like hours, not wanted to let go, hugging each other like it had been years, and for Naruto it had been years. They both cried into each-others strong embrace, letting tears float down softly onto the ground. The sun shined brightly on the scene, and the soft wind whistled past. Finally, two men, more like two puzzle pieces re-joined, and everything seemed brighter, and the world once again felt balanced.

Naruto pulled away for only a moment to look at Sasuke as he knew him when he was 28, he couldn’t believe he had him in his arms. He quickly went forward wanted to kiss Sasuke one million times to make up for 20 years of missing half of his heart.

“I love you.” Naruto said.

“I love you more.” Sasuke said.

-

It seemed as though as they kissed the flowers grew and the more they smiled the brighter things got. And it was strange, that even though they were no longer alive, precisely the moment Sasuke and Naruto touched in the afterlife, people on earth could have sworn they saw the sun shine a little brighter, the flowers on earth shine colours so beautifully day and at night, the sky was lit with many more stars and the moon seemed like it was illuminating against the dark sky canvas.

-

The end


End file.
